Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

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

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism.

Preaching is the expression of moral sentiments applied to the duties of life.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

We sing in a church, why can we not dance there?

For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.

I think that age is irrelevant. We’re all pretty much spiritual beings – I consider myself to be about eighty-five. I feel like I’m ancient, like two thousand years old.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right.

Every old poem is sacred.

Work is life, you know, and without it, there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.