Henry David Thoreau

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.

There are German songs which can make a stranger to the language cry.

What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.

Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.

Every man passes his life in the search after friendship.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.