Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

American writer

Lived from: 1817 - 1862

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 12 july 1817 Died: 6 may 1862

  • There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
  • A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
  • 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.
  • Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.
  • There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.
  • What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.
  • The perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.
  • I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.
  • When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before.
  • Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?
  • I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.
  • All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.
  • To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
  • I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.
  • The man for who the law exists - the man of forms, the conservative - is a tame man.
  • The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant like frankincense to superior natures.
  • As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.
  • I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.
  • Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice.
  • One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then
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  • Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
    ― 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.
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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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  • Being is the great explainer.
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  • City life is millions of people being lonesome together.
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  • Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.
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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.
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  • I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
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  • I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.
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  • It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
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  • It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
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  • Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it.
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  • The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my answer.
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  • The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.
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  • There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
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  • This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.
    ― Henry David Thoreau
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  • To regret deeply is to live afresh.
    ― Henry David Thoreau
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  • What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
    ― Henry David Thoreau
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  • A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
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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.
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What are the most famous quotes from Henry David Thoreau?

The two most famous quotes from Henry David Thoreau are:

  • "Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake."
  • "Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it."

When did Henry David Thoreau live?

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 and died in the year 1862.