Henry David Thoreau

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

Men have become the tools of their tools.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

Sexes make no Difference; since in Souls there is none: And they are the Subjects of Friendship.

That man is idle who can do something better.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice.

How much of human life is lost in waiting.

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

For Wealth are all things that conduce, to one’s destruction or their use. A standard both to buy and sell, all things from heaven down to hell.

Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.

You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.

There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe… the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.