Henry David Thoreau

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

We live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologies. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought – with these I deal.

That was Youth with its reckless exuberance when all things were possible pursued by Age where we are now, looking back at what we destroyed, what we tore away from that self who could do more, and its work that’s become my enemy because that’s what I can tell you about, that Youth who could do anything.

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

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

We must hold a man amenable to reason for the choice of his daily craft or profession. It is not an excuse any longer for his deeds that they are the custom of his trade. What business has he with an evil trade?

Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

All say, How hard it is that we have to die – a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

When it comes to the point, really bad men are just as rare as really good ones.

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. [Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.Lat.]

Artists must be sacrificed to their art.

Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.

The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

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