Greatness Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Every man should stand for a force which is perfectly irresistible.

— Henry David Thoreau

“We know but few man, a great many coats and breeches.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

— Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not fail.

— Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

— Henry David Thoreau

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

— Henry David Thoreau

. . . we should be men first, and subjects afterward.

— Henry David Thoreau

We never conceive the greatness of our fates.

— Henry David Thoreau

Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.

— Henry David Thoreau

Nothing can rightly compel a simple and brave man to a vulgar sadness.

— Henry David Thoreau

Since all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.

— Henry David Thoreau

So long as a man is faithful to himself, everything is in his favor, government, society, the very sun, moon, and stars.

— Henry David Thoreau

The great poem must have the stamp of greatness as well as its essence.

— Henry David Thoreau

If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends!

— Henry David Thoreau

Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized.

— Henry David Thoreau

He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

— Henry David Thoreau

The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political…

— Henry David Thoreau

Men are in the main alike, but they were made several in order that they might be various. If a low use…

— Henry David Thoreau

If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show…

— Henry David Thoreau

To speak impartially, the best men that I know are not serene, a world in themselves. For the most part, they dwell…

— Henry David Thoreau

With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly…

— Henry David Thoreau

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides…

— Henry David Thoreau

The ways in which most men get their living, that is, live, are mere makeshifts, and a shirking of the real business…

— Henry David Thoreau

Men have a singular desire to be good without being good for anything, because, perchance, they think vaguely that so it will…

— Henry David Thoreau

“I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or…

— Henry David Thoreau

The greater number of men are merely corporals.

— Henry David Thoreau

Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.

— Henry David Thoreau

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

“What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”

— Henry David Thoreau

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

— Henry David Thoreau

All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.

— Henry David Thoreau

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?

— Henry David Thoreau

With a little more deliberationin the choice of their pursuits,all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature…

— Henry David Thoreau

As for men, they will hardly fail one anywhere. I had more visitors while I lived in the woods than at any…

— Henry David Thoreau

“He teaches how to void excrement and urine and the like, elevating what is mean, and does not falsely excuse himself by…

— Henry David Thoreau

Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to…

— Henry David Thoreau