Henry David Thoreau

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

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

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.

Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend’s life also, in our own, to the world.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. They prefer suffering that is familiar to the unknown.

My life is a struggle.

If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively.

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

There was never a century nor a country that was short of experts who knew the Deity’s mind and were willing to reveal it.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

Commerce is a game of skill which everyone cannot play and few can play well.

The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

We are as much informed of a writer’s genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.

We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death.

It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness – calling their denial knowledge.