Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

The Indian… stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.

The Friend asks no return but that his Friend will religiously accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They cherish each other's hopes. They are kind to each other's dreams.

May we so love as never to have occasion to repent of our love!

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them?

A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent to another kitten with which the forepart plays. She does not discover that her tail belongs to her until you tread on it.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live accordingly to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other....

Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution — such call I good books.

Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other.

A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom. - from Live Without Principle

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance. Observe how the greatest minds yield in some degree to the superstitions of their age.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy we reason from our hands to our head.

Arthur Schopenhauer Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Do not despair of life. Think of the fox, prowling in a winter night to satisfy his hunger. His race survives I do not believe any of them ever committed suicide.

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.

Do the BEST with your Life for the REST of your Life!

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid.