Henry David Thoreau

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

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.

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

What is a country without rabbits and partridges? They are among the most simple and indigenous animal products; ancient and venerable families known to antiquity as to modern times; of the very hue and substance of Nature, nearest allied to leaves and to the ground.

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.

Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.

Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don’t bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, or bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What is life but what a man is thinking of all day? This is his fate and his employer. Knowing is the measure of the man. By how much we know, so much we are.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

All problems are finally scientific problems.

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

Rest in reason; move in passion.