Inspiring Quotes by Henry David Thoreau - Page 3

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"A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town"

"A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars"

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

"I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men"

"I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while"

"I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will"

"I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid"

"All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man"

"All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning"

"It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know"

"It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious"

"Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve"

"Men are born to succeed, not to fail"

"It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive"

"It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today"

"If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see"

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them"

"If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things"

"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right"

"It is never too late to give up our prejudices"

"It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise"

"In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood"

"I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude"

"I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude"

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours"

"If misery loves company, misery has company enough"

"If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?"

"An unclean person is universally a slothful one"

"As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution"

"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"

"As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society"

"The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles"

"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all"

"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth"

"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end"

"Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them"

"Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them"

"Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him"

"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"

"Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution"

"Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?"

"Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind"

"Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul"

"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them"

"Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others we are indifferent"

"There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know. The keeping of bees, for instance"

"There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages"

"There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone"

"There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor"

"There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold"

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