Henry David Thoreau Quotes

Henry David Thoreau

The universe is wider than our views of it.

Henry David Thoreau
(Walden - Chapter XVIII: Conclusion, 1854)

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1852)

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1847)

But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter I: Economy, 1854)

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Henry David Thoreau (Familiar Letters)

Things do not change; we change.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter XVIII: Conclusion, 1854)

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Henry David Thoreau (Letter, 1848)

The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter XVIII: Conclusion, 1854)

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1856)

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter XI: Higher Laws, 1854)

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1838)

A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau (Life Without Principles, 1863)

Love your life, poor as it is.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter XVIII: Conclusion, 1854)

The language of Friendship is not words but meanings.

Henry David Thoreau (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849)


Henry David Thoreau Quote: Our truest life is when we are in dreams awkae...

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Henry David Thoreau (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849)

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter XVIII: Conclusion, 1854)

Grow wild according to thy nature ... Enjoy the land but own it not ..

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter X: Baker Farm, 1854)

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1840)

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

Henry David Thoreau (Letter to Benjamin Bowen Wiley, 1857)

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

Henry David Thoreau (Journal Entry, 1859)

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter I: Economy, 1854)

Not till we are completely lost or turned around... do we begin to find ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter VIII: The Village, 1854)

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter III: Reading, 1854)

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Henry David Thoreau (Walking, 1862)

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 (Walden - Chapter I: Economy, 1854)

Our life without love is coke and ashes.

Henry David Thoreau (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849)

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter I: Economy, 1854)

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

Henry David Thoreau (Letter to Harrison Blake, 1848)

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?

Henry David Thoreau (Walden - Chapter I: Economy, 1854)

Go where we will on the surface of things, men have been there before us.

Henry David Thoreau (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, 1849)


Henry David Thoreau Biography

Born: July 12, 1817
Died: May 6, 1862

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, abolitionist, poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the book Walden. He has also been highly influential in political thought.

Notable Works

The Service (1840)
Paradise Regained (1843)
Reform and the Reformers (1846-1848)
Thomas Carlyle and His Works (1847)
Civil Disobedience (1849)
Walden (1854)
Walking (1861)
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