Henry David Thoreau

The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.

I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of God, is his private ail. Let this be righted, let the spring come to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his generous companions without apology.

We should come home from adventures and perils and discoveries with new experiences and character.

We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing.

The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.

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.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Wear none of thine own Chains; but keep free, whilst thou art free.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.

All that appears is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.

Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it.

A hen is only a egg’s way of making another egg.

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.

The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

He who is only a traveler learns things at second-hand and by the halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science reports what those men already know practically or instinctively, for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.