Henry David Thoreau

Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.

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

I was born upon thy bank, river, my blood flows in thy stream, and thou meanderest forever. At the bottom of my dream.

Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Give, even if you only have little.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Self-suggestion makes you master of yourself.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

There are no have-to’s, just choices.

Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.

Justice delayed is justice denied.