Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

About Henry David Thoreau:

Henry David Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

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

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

Henry David Thoreau

We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

Henry David Thoreau

Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

Henry David Thoreau

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.

Henry David Thoreau

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Henry David Thoreau

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

Henry David Thoreau

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

Henry David Thoreau

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

Henry David Thoreau

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

Henry David Thoreau

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Henry David Thoreau

Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.

Henry David Thoreau

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

Henry David Thoreau

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.

Henry David Thoreau

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

Henry David Thoreau

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

Henry David Thoreau

Author Bio

  • NameHenry David Thoreau
  • Description1817-1862 American author, abolitionist, naturalist
  • BornJuly 12, 1817
  • DiedMay 6, 1862
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Philosopher; Essayist; Autobiographer