Henry David Thoreau

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

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

The heart is forever inexperienced.

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.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’

If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life I would say- the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained.

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.

The gap that’s opened I’m filling with fairy dust, hues of the heart and a joy for life what was… I invite to exit right quietly, in shades of black and white.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Life is a progress, and not a station.

I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.