Henry David Thoreau

American writer

Lived from: 1817-1862

Category: Writers (Contemporary)

Quotes: Henry David Thoreau

Quotes 1 till 15 of 283.

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Henry David Thoreau

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Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
David Henry Thoreau

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Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it
Henry David Thoreau

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How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.
Henry David Thoreau

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

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It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau

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To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.
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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A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.
Henry David Thoreau

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Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.
Henry David Thoreau

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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.
Henry David Thoreau

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Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
Henry David Thoreau

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For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.
Henry David Thoreau

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How earthy old people become, moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets.
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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I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?