Independence Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

What have I to do with plows? I cut another furrow than you see.

— Henry David Thoreau

Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.

— Henry David Thoreau

All great enterprises are self-supporting.

— Henry David Thoreau

To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions.

— Henry David Thoreau

Why will we be imposed on by antiquity?

— Henry David Thoreau

I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society.

— Henry David Thoreau

Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.

— Henry David Thoreau

The Indian's intercourse with Nature is at least such as admits of the greatest independence of each.

— Henry David Thoreau

“The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of the marketplace.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

Individuals, like nations, must have suitable broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between them.

— Henry David Thoreau

The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased.

— Henry David Thoreau

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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