Henry David Thoreau

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Remember who you are.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Religion is nothing else but love of God and man.

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.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.