Henry David Thoreau

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.

It was prettily devised of Aesop, The fly sat on the axle tree of the chariot wheel and said, what dust do I raise!

To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.

There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.

You will find only what you bring in.

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.

Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!

Cure the disease and kill the patient.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad.

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he’s the hell of a diplomat.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.