Henry David Thoreau

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

We shall see but little way if we require to understand what we see. How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding! How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile!

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limit of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced. Extravagance! it depends on how you are yarded.

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.

There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little, and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not keep their suspicions in smother.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid.

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.

The worst solitude is to have no real friendships.

If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging?

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

Not even the Devil can call a woman “Slut” if he is not able to make her fall in love.