Henry David Thoreau

Men have become the tools of their trade.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

We hate the kindness which we understand.

The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

For them that think death’s honesty won’t fall upon them naturally life sometimes must get lonely.

When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?

I think I always feel like if everything went to shit, I would just teach improv at a theatre.

Nothing endures but change.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation.

If you go into a union, they have got you, but what have you got?

I tell you, if you’re in the front row of the parade and you stop walking, pretty soon you’re back in the tuba section. And if you want to lead the parade you’ve got to keep moving.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist.

I attribute whatever I may have been able to accomplish in life far more to my wife than to anything else and to everything else put together. But I cannot flatter myself that I found her because I was a ‘good picker’, I believe profoundly that we are guided, led, in such momentous matters.

You are the daydream I am supposed to have for the rest of my life.

Idleness is the reason for many of our troubles.

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.