I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We make needless ado about capital punishment,--taking lives, when there is no life to take. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Fresh curls spring from the baldest brow. There is nothing inorganic. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I shall sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I'm sure that, for me, there… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only investment that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Do not despair of life. Think of the fox, prowling in a winter night to satisfy his hunger. His race survives; I… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Having reached the term of his natural life"; Mwould it not be truer to say, Having reached the term of his unnatural… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
They who are continually shocked by slavery have some right to be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder, but no… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
My Aunt Maria asked me to read the life of Dr. Chalmers, which, however, I did not promise to do. Yesterday, Sunday,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love; and in proportion to our truthfulness and confidence in one another, our lives… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Not that food which entereth into the moth defileth a man, but the appetite with which it is eaten. It is neither… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is the color of colors. This plant speaks… — 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
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Compared with this simple, fibrous life, our civilized history appears the chronicle of debility, of fashion, and the arts of luxury. But… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“And now that we have returned to the desultory life of the plain, let us endeavor to import a little of that… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In my cheapest moments I am apt to think that it is n't my business to be "seeking the spirit," but as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Waves of a serene life pass over us from time to time, like flakes of sunlight over the fields in cloudy weather. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
“Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows that surround it. We need the tonic… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The scenery, when it is truly seen, reacts on the life of the seer. How to live. How to get the most… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. [So why not suspect good rather than bad in events,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire… The greater the genius, the keener the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, which in others are luxuries merely and in others still are entirely… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence: as our skeletons, probably, are not… — 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
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
“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
“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
“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
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
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
The still youthful energies of the globe have only to be directed in their proper channel. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
“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 Copy Share
Wealth is measured by the level of experience in all aspects of life — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share
![“It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessities of life.” quote by Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9b5/henry-david-thoreau-20_advantage_it-is-of-some-advantage-to-live-a-primit_2761655.jpg)
![“We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. [So why not suspect good rather than bad in events, people and life and thereby find it more?]” quote by Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aec/henry-david-thoreau-20_events_we-are-always-paid-for-our-suspicion-by_2323235.jpg)
