Henry David Thoreau

People die of fright and live of confidence.

Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.

How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and wood-lot. The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

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

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.

If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

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

There is properly no history; only biography.

Right is right even if everyone is against it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.

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

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

To be mature you have to realize what you value most… Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one’s own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.

Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled egg…

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.