Henry David Thoreau

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

The law will never make men free, it is men that have to make the law free.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.

The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

A lucky person gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they’re about to do and thinks it still matters.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Logic is like the sword

Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong.

Here undoubtedly lies the chief poetic energy: -in the force of imagination that pierces or exalts the solid fact, instead of floating among cloud-pictures.

Life is a festival only to the wise.

Ask counsel of both timesof the ancient time what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.