Henry David Thoreau

The only wealth is life.

It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

To watch this crystal globe just sent from heaven to associate with me. While these clouds and this somber drizzling weather shut all in, we two draw nearer and know one another. The gathering in of the clouds with the last rush and dying breath of the wind, and then the regular dripping of twigs and leaves the country over, the impression of inward comfort and Sociableness, the drenched stubble and trees that drop beads on you as you pass, their dim outline seen through the rain on all sides drooping in sympathy with yourself. These are my undisputed territory. This is Nature’s English comfort.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

A tiny leak can sink a ship.

One of the things I realized is that if you do not take control over your time and your life, other people will gobble it up. If you don’t prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list, your kids fall lower and lower on your list.

Life is full of surprises, some good, some not so good.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

They (wives) are people who think when the telephone bell rings, it is against the law not to answer it

You must demand nothing less than the best of yourself and for yourself. You must tell yourself that it is not wrong to want it all.

Do not condemn the judgement of another because it differs from your own. You may both be wrong.

A lot of people do have tragic childhoods. But you know what? Get over it.

I no longer feel the need of seeking out conscious Americanism. Because we live here and work here, we can be certain that when our music is mature it will also be American in quality.

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.