Henry David Thoreau

I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

The Jews generally give value. They make you pay; but they deliver the goods. In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

Principles aren’t of much account anyway, except at election time. After that you hang them up to let them season.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.