Henry David Thoreau

He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

Resting at your shore fills me with a peace, as if I’ve always been here. My cells resonating with the element of you, boundaries diffuse as one.

Work is always an antidote to depression.

The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.

Errors look so very ugly in persons of small means – one feels they are taking quite a liberty in going astray; whereas people of fortune may naturally indulge in a few delinquencies.

The way to do well is to do well.

The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

The avarice person is ever in want; let your desired aim have a fixed limit.

It’s so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right.