Henry David Thoreau

Do what you love. Know you own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

A man sits as many risks as he runs.

Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

Originality is a device that untalented people use to impress other untalented people to protect themselves from talented people…

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

The greatest glory in living lies in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Humility like the darkness, reveals the heavenly lights.

Travel is a fools paradise.

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.

Life is a festival only to the wise.

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it… Beware of me, it says, but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.