Henry David Thoreau

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right.

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.

One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

Fear always springs from ignorance.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

If it is not beautiful for someone, it does not exist.

The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession.

I don’t like needing anyone for anything.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

Men have become the tools of their trade.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

I do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.

The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.

What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce.