Henry David Thoreau

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.

The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

The measure of a great leader, is their success in bringing everyone around to their opinion twenty years later.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic: a man’s own observation what he finds good of and what he finds hurt of is the best physic to preserve health.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.

Sorrow makes us children again.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid.

I think there’s a great beauty to having problems. That’s one of the ways we learn.

In the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am – unbound.

Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.

Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.

Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Dont be content with things as they are. Dont take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.