Henry David Thoreau

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

I know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, or thoughts are affection; and am sensible of certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as from another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is no part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

To inherit property is not to be born – it is to be still-born, rather.

If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

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

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.

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

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is – Let there be truth between us two forevermore.

The man who is ostentatious of his modesty is twin to the statue that wears a fig-leaf.

She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.

He walked out into the cold morning asking himself this heretical question: Can you start measuring a minute at any instant you wish?

Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.

To solve a problem or to reach a goal, you don’t need to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach.