Henry David Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

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.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

We live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.

It is interesting to observe with what singular unanimity the farthest sundered nations and generations consent to give completeness and roundness to an ancient fable, of which they indistinctly appreciate the beauty or the truth. By a faint and dream-like effort, though it be only by the vote of a scientific body, the dullest posterity slowly add some trait to the mythus. As when astronomers call the lately discovered planet Neptune; or the asteroid Astr.

Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.

How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice…

Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one’s clothes.

Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing in themselves.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

According to this law [the law of Dharma], you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world–and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that creates affluence. Expressing your talents to fulfill needs creates unlimited wealth and abundance.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.