Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
May we so love as never to have occasion to repent of our love! — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I pray that the life of this spring and summer may ever lie fair in my memory. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
A man might well pray that he may not taboo or curse any portion of nature by being buried in it. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
For if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If one hesitates in his path, let him not proceed. Let him respect his doubts, for doubts, too, may have some divinity… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
It is said that some Western steamers can run on a heavy dew, whence we can imagine what a canoe may do. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What wisdom, what warning can prevail against gladness? There is no law so strong that a little gladness may not transgress. — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Even the facts of science may dust the mind by their dryness, unless they are ... rendered fertile by the dews of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Bread may not always nourish us; but it always does us good, it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If I choose to devote myself to certain labors which yield more real profit, though but little money, they may be inclined… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Ex oriente lux may still be the motto of scholars, for the Western world has not yet derived from the East all… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Yet I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender, the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any naturalobject,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Why should not we, who have renounced the king's authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
There is, however, this consolation to the most way-worn traveler, upon the dustiest road, that the path his feet describe is so… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
What do the botanists know? Our lives should go between the lichen and the bark. The eye may see for the hand,… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
No doubt Carlyle has a propensity to exaggerate the heroic in history, that is, he creates you an ideal hero rather than… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
The Man of Genius may at the same time be, indeed is commonly, an Artist, but the two are not to be… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
In 1694 a law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear of the Indians should forfeit all his… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
One little bird not larger than a sparrow, it may have been a Phalarope, would alight on the turbulent surface where the… — Henry David Thoreau Copy Share Image
If you take this life to be simply what old religious folks pretend (I mean the effete, gone to seed in a… — 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
