Habits Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

18 Habits quotes by Henry David Thoreau

All Habits quotes Henry David Thoreau’s page

Thoreau writes about habits as the quiet architects of a purposeful life. His reflections invite you to consider the rhythm of your days and the possibility of aligning them with nature’s cadence.

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Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.

Henry David Thoreau

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In the student sensuality is a sluggish habit of mind.

Henry David Thoreau

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Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.

Henry David Thoreau

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I have the habit of attention to such excess, that my senses get no rest - but suffer from a constant strain.

Henry David Thoreau

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The outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them;…

Henry David Thoreau

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if i repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. what demon possessed me that i behaved so…

Henry David Thoreau

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Unless our philosophy hears the cock crow in every barn-yard within our horizon, it is belated. That sound commonly reminds us that…

Henry David Thoreau

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“The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of…

Henry David Thoreau

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I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts…

Henry David Thoreau

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The most domestic cat, which has lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at home in the woods, and, by…

Henry David Thoreau

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There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of…

Henry David Thoreau

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Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution and habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated…

Henry David Thoreau

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As a man grows older, his ability to sit still and follow indoor occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his habits as…

Henry David Thoreau

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It is but too easy to establish another durable and harmonious routine. Immediately all parts of nature consent to it. Only make…

Henry David Thoreau

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I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial…

Henry David Thoreau

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Those things which now most engage the attention of men, as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital functions…

Henry David Thoreau

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The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of…

Henry David Thoreau

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By avarice and selfishness, and a groveling habit, from which none of us is free, of regarding the soil as property, or…

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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