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

be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.

Henry David Thoreau

Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.

Henry David Thoreau

This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.

Henry David Thoreau

A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; — and yet we learn to re...

Henry David Thoreau

Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the language in which they were written must have a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable that no transcript of them has ever been made into any mode...

Henry David Thoreau

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

Henry David Thoreau

I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he belie...

Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience. But a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.

Henry David Thoreau

Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.

Henry David Thoreau

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

Henry David Thoreau

What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.

Henry David Thoreau

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.

Henry David Thoreau

Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.

Henry David Thoreau

He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up your prejudices

Henry David Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.

Henry David Thoreau

We are more of the earth, Farther from heaven these days.

Henry David Thoreau

My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks.

Henry David Thoreau

It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner and thinner until there is none at all. …We are not the less to aim at the summits though the multitude does not ascend them.

Henry David Thoreau

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

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