To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of the marketplace.” — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Indian's intercourse with Nature is at least such as admits of the greatest independence of each. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The newspapers are the ruling power. Any other government is reduced to a few marines at Fort Independence. If a man neglects… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Wherever a man separates from the multitude, and goes his own way in this mood, there indeed is a fork in the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
It is remarkable that there are few men so well employed, so much to their minds, but that a little money or… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
They who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time accumulating… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
After reading Howitt's account of the Australian gold-diggings one evening,... I asked myself why I might not be washing some golddaily, though… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Unless the human race perspire more than I do, there is no occasion to live by the sweat of their brow. If… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whenever I have read any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illuminated me. In the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is always singular, but encouraging, to meet with common sense in very old books, as the Heetopades of Veeshnoo Sarma; a… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men, and that men… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As for conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. Let not your right hand… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What have I to do with plows? I cut another furrow than you see. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is the use of going right over the old track again? There is an adder in the path which your own… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I delight to come to my bearings,... not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or sitthoughtfully… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I am engaged to Concord and my own private pursuits by 10,000 ties, and it would be suicide to rend them. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Men spend the best parts of their lives earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What a battle a man must fight everywhere to maintain his standing army of thoughts, and march with them in orderly array… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground, and rising through the house to the heavens; evenafter… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I expect a time when, or rather an integrity by which, a man will get his coat as honestly and as perfectly… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Alas! this is the crying sin of the age, this want of faith in the prevalence of a man. Nothing can be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
