Henry David Thoreau quotes

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Henry David Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Henry David Thoreau

A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting bread.

Henry David Thoreau

Live each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.

Henry David Thoreau

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Henry David Thoreau

We live but a fraction of our lives.

Henry David Thoreau

I love you not as something private and personal, which is my own, but as something universal and worthy of love which I have found.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.

Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is 'What are we busy about?'.

Henry David Thoreau

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

I make myself rich by making my wants few.

Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the law of the universe will be simpler.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

The world is but a canvas to the imagination.

Henry David Thoreau

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

Henry David Thoreau

I stand in awe of my body.

Henry David Thoreau

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Henry David Thoreau

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated.

Henry David Thoreau

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

Henry David Thoreau

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions know that you are alone in the world.

Henry David Thoreau

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Henry David Thoreau

It is not enough to be busy the question is what are we busy about.

Henry David Thoreau

It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.

Henry David Thoreau

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful. But it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Henry David Thoreau

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages.

Henry David Thoreau

Live each season as it passes breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.

Henry David Thoreau

Make the most of your regrets. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Henry David Thoreau