Henry David Thoreau quotes

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“That government is best which governs least.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Be not simply good - be good for something.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Dreams are the touchstones of our character.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

— Henry David Thoreau

“There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“If misery loves company, misery has company enough.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

“Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.”

— Henry David Thoreau