Ambition Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

12 Ambition quotes by Henry David Thoreau

All Ambition quotes Henry David Thoreau’s page

Thoreau’s 12 musings juxtapose the pull of ambition with the quiet of nature. They invite readers to consider what truly matters when we aim higher.

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Hold fast to your most indefinite, waking dream.

Henry David Thoreau

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It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and every one who works is scrubbing in some part.

Henry David Thoreau

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My actual life is a fact, in view of which I have no occasion to congratulate myself; but for my faith and…

Henry David Thoreau

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If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined...

Henry David Thoreau

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Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What…

Henry David Thoreau

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No man who acts from a sense of duty ever puts the lesser duty above the greater. No man has the desire…

Henry David Thoreau

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Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and it…

Henry David Thoreau

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Where is the "unexplored land" but in our own untried enterprises? To an adventurous spirit any place--London, New York, Worcester, or his…

Henry David Thoreau

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For a companion, I require one who will make an equal demand on me with my own genius. Such a one will…

Henry David Thoreau

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It is best to lay our plans widely in youth, for then land is cheap, and it is but too easy to…

Henry David Thoreau

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I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to…

Henry David Thoreau

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If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will…

Henry David Thoreau

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More by Henry David Thoreau

If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am…

Henry David Thoreau

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Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

Henry David Thoreau

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“Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings, — The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that…

Henry David Thoreau

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I am not afraid of praise, for I have practiced it on myself.

Henry David Thoreau

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“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or back gammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and…

Henry David Thoreau

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“This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of…

Henry David Thoreau

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As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may…

Henry David Thoreau

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A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

Henry David Thoreau

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In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post office. You may depend on it, that the…

Henry David Thoreau

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I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Henry David Thoreau

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The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel.

Henry David Thoreau

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Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.

Henry David Thoreau

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The lumberers rarely trouble themselves to put out their fires, such is the dampness of the primitive forest; and this is one cause, no…

Henry David Thoreau

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“When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to…

Henry David Thoreau

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Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life

Henry David Thoreau

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