Henry David Thoreau

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

How earthy old people become moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets.

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.

One little bird not larger than a sparrow, it may have been a Phalarope, would alight on the turbulent surface where the breakers were five or six feet high, and float buoyantly there like a duck, cunningly taking to its wings and lifting itself a few feet through the air over the foaming crest of each breaker, but sometimes outriding safely a considerable billow which hid it some seconds, when its instinct told it that it would not break. It was a little creature thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as perfect a success in its way as the breakers in theirs.

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

The eye is the jewel of the body.

It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.

Are people more violently opposed to fur rather than leather because its much easier to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs?

You know you’re getting old when you stop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

The only thing you can give a man without hurting him is an opportunity.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.

“I can’t do it” never accomplished anything; “I will try” has performed miracles.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, abandon any theory, if the success of the job requires it.

Those unproductive hands … may consume so great a share … that all the frugality and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate … this violent and forced encroachment.

Art hath an enemy called Ignorance.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.