1817-1862, American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right.
Henry David Thoreau – [Law and Lawyers]
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau – [Busyness]
It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
Henry David Thoreau – [Imagination]
It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady.
Henry David Thoreau – [Women]
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.
Henry David Thoreau – [God]
It takes two to speak truth — one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau – [Truth]
Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.
Henry David Thoreau – [Knowledge]
Let nothing come between you and the light.
Henry David Thoreau – [Control]
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet drink and botanical medicines.
Henry David Thoreau – [Seasons]
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
Henry David Thoreau – [Death and Dying]
Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.
Henry David Thoreau – [Love]
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
Henry David Thoreau – [Regret]
Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
Henry David Thoreau – [Happiness]
Many men go fishing their entire lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau – [Purpose]
Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.
Henry David Thoreau – [Winter]
Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature –if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you –know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.
Henry David Thoreau – [Health]
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau – [Failure]
Men have become the tools of their trade.
Henry David Thoreau – [Work]
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
Henry David Thoreau – [Money]
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Henry David Thoreau – [Life and Living]
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