Henry David Thoreau

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-play. It at least exhibits one of the faces of humanity, the former only a mask.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

The stars are the apexes of what triangles!

Why do the words I want to say, struggle to come out of my mouth. Why does fear have such a grip over me. I shouldn’t have to battle to say all the complimentary things I so desperately want to share. It shouldn’t be this hard, that I have to force myself; it’s wrong that such loving words, should have to be spoken under such duress. I’m aware of how wrong it is, but withholding is all I have known, even though I desire so badly to share my thoughts and feelings with you, as freely as you do with me.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.

That’s what I can’t stand. I know I’ll bounce back, and that’s what I can’t stand.

Might, could, would – they are contemptible auxiliaries.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables.

Once we recognize that all things are impermanent, we have no problem enjoying them.

The true poem is the poet’s mind.

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.