Henry David Thoreau

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.

I would not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

If you are good, life is good.

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.

Energy doesn’t lie so trust those vibes you’re getting.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

When one has tasted it Watermelon he knows what the angels eat.

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

I tell you there isn’t a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a woman, unless it’s bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way; it had better been left to the men.