Henry David Thoreau

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing.

If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone.

To watch this crystal globe just sent from heaven to associate with me. While these clouds and this somber drizzling weather shut all in, we two draw nearer and know one another. The gathering in of the clouds with the last rush and dying breath of the wind, and then the regular dripping of twigs and leaves the country over, the impression of inward comfort and Sociableness, the drenched stubble and trees that drop beads on you as you pass, their dim outline seen through the rain on all sides drooping in sympathy with yourself. These are my undisputed territory. This is Nature’s English comfort.

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it! Is the scholastic air any advantage?

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

There is only one good – knowledge; and only one evil – ignorance.

Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.

There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.

My love for you was like a poem I wrote; one that I disregarded as average. Torn out, thrown away to the rubbish heap, waiting; wishing to be picked up and appreciated by someone else, for the masterpiece that it is.

Let your character be kept up the very end, just as it began, and so be consistent.

We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a belly-full of words and do not know a thing. The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.