Done Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

— Henry David Thoreau

To live a better life,--this surely can be done.

— Henry David Thoreau

Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good.

— Henry David Thoreau

What is once well done is done forever.

— Henry David Thoreau

For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

— Henry David Thoreau

For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done forever.

— Henry David Thoreau

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.

— Henry David Thoreau

Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy…

— Henry David Thoreau

I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect...always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I…

— Henry David Thoreau

When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves.

— Henry David Thoreau

A man's whole life is taxed for the least thing well done. It is its net result.

— Henry David Thoreau

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare…

— Henry David Thoreau

Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the…

— Henry David Thoreau

To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always…

— Henry David Thoreau

I noticed, as I had done before, that there was a lull among the mosquitoes about midnight, and that they began again…

— Henry David Thoreau

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if…

— Henry David Thoreau

If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is,…

— Henry David Thoreau

I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. They would have…

— Henry David Thoreau

Poetry is the only life got, the only work done, the only pure product and free labor of man, performed only when…

— Henry David Thoreau

The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of…

— Henry David Thoreau

This fair homestead has fallen to us, and how little have we done to improve it, how little have we cleared and…

— Henry David Thoreau

The word which is best said came nearest to not being spoken at all, for it is cousin to a deed which…

— Henry David Thoreau

The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate…

— Henry David Thoreau

Be assured that every man's success is in proportion to his average ability. The meadow flowers spring and bloom where the watersannually…

— Henry David Thoreau

I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,--if ten honest men only,--ay,…

— Henry David Thoreau

I have made a very rude translation of the Seven against Thebes, and Pindar too I have looked at, and wish he…

— Henry David Thoreau

The poet is no tender slip of fairy stock, who requires peculiar institutions and edicts for his defense, but the toughest son…

— Henry David Thoreau

I do not remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's "origin, purpose, and destiny." He was more practical than that.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The Jesuits were quite balked by those Indians who, being burned at the stake, suggested new modes of tortures to their tormentors.…

— Henry David Thoreau

The principal, the only, thing a man makes, is his condition of fate. Though commonly he does not know it, nor put…

— Henry David Thoreau

How we shall earn our bread is a grave question; yet it is a sweet and inviting question. Let us not shirk…

— Henry David Thoreau