Henry David Thoreau

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

All good things are cheap: all bad are very dear.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

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

For too long I have silenced my heart, that now, when I give it the opportunity to speak, it no longer remembers its voice. Locked away, it forgot what it’s like to be free; to roam. Imprisoned within loneliness, I fear Stockholm syndrome has developed.

As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

Logic is a poor guide compared with custom.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

My chief want in life is someone who shall make me do what I can.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

Only trust theyself, and another shall noet betray thee

My finger can point to the moon, but my finger is not the moon. You don’t have to become my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.