Henry David Thoreau

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Youth gets together with their materials to build a bridge to the moon or maybe a palace on earth; then in middle age they decide to build a woodshed with them instead.

I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must lay it down and commence living on its hint… What I began by reading I must finish by acting.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

If you want the time to pass quickly, just give your note for 90 days.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

Say a word, say a thousand to me on the telephone and I shall choose the wrong one to cling to as though you had said it after long deliberation when only I provoked it from you, I will cling to it from among a thousand, to be provoked and hurl it back with something I mean no more than you meant that, something for you to cling to and retreat clinging to.

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

It is the amends of a short and troublesome life, that doing good and suffering ill entitles man to a longer and better

Obscurity and competence: That is the life that is worth living.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.