Henry David Thoreau

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

Things do not change; we change.

My love for you was like a poem I wrote; one that I disregarded as average. Torn out, thrown away to the rubbish heap, waiting; wishing to be picked up and appreciated by someone else, for the masterpiece that it is.

Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day – farther and wider – and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.

The true artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.

Lest I keep my complacent way I must remember somewhere out there a person died for me today. As long as there must be war, I ask and I must answer was I worth dying for?

The quickest way to become troubled is to be concerned with what people are gonna say about your life and your work.

If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.

To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know, I’ve done it a thousand times.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself, and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

It is only through labour and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage; that we move on to better things.

To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all.