Henry David Thoreau

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.

Even the best things are not equal to their fame.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul.

Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.

My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

There is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn.

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

There is properly no history; only biography.