Henry David Thoreau

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist.

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.

He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients, no, three, I think – yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.

I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez, and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemption of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the message of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. Amen.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

Courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.

That things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain.