Henry David Thoreau

The universe is wider than our views of it.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.

As for the pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs.

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.

Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.

Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.

If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

Clogged with yesterday’s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.

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

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

I don’t do quagmires.

A good scare is worth more than good advice.