Henry David Thoreau Quotes

American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
– Henry David Thoreau

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It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
– Henry David Thoreau

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What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
– Henry David Thoreau

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In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify, simplify!
– Henry David Thoreau

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Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
– Henry David Thoreau

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A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
– Henry David Thoreau

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We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.
– Henry David Thoreau

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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

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I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Things do not change; we change.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Not till we are completely lost or turned around… do we begin to find ourselves.
– Henry David Thoreau

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One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.
– Henry David Thoreau

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You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.
– Henry David Thoreau

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A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener.
– Henry David Thoreau

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In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
– Henry David Thoreau

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An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.
– Henry David Thoreau

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I make myself rich by making my wants few.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
– Henry David Thoreau

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I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual improvement to leave off eating animals.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The eye is the jewel of the body.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The greatest art is to shape the quality of the day.
– Henry David Thoreau

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I fear I have not got much to say about Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold
– Henry David Thoreau

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Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
– Henry David Thoreau

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To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
– Henry David Thoreau

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It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
– Henry David Thoreau

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A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
– Henry David Thoreau

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If you give money, spend yourself with it.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
– Henry David Thoreau

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That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The sun is but a morning star.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Only what is thought, said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good.
– Henry David Thoreau

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There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
– Henry David Thoreau

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How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Even the best things are not equal to their fame.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
– Henry David Thoreau

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This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.
– Henry David Thoreau

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If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
– Henry David Thoreau

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The stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
– Henry David Thoreau

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Youth gets together with their materials to build a bridge to the moon or maybe a palace on earth; then in middle age they decide to build a woodshed with them instead.
– Henry David Thoreau

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