Henry David Thoreau

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.

Between his consciousness and events stood always that impenetrable medium – indifference.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Things do not change; we change.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.

Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.

Beauty rests on necessities.

This comes of James teaching me to think for myself, and never to hold back out of fear of what other people may think of me. It works beautifully as long as I think the same things as he does.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

Be confident, not certain

Duties are not performed for duty’s sake, but because their neglect would make the man uncomfortable. A man performs but one duty -the duty of contenting his spirit, the duty of making himself agreeable to himself.

The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig-leaf.

Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you.

Of what significance are the things you can forget.