Quotes from Henry David Thoreau
There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.
- Henry David Thoreau
We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.
- Henry David Thoreau
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.
- Henry David Thoreau
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.
- 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
The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains.
- Henry David Thoreau
Spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it, reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.
- Henry David Thoreau
Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.
- Henry David Thoreau
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hinderances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
- Henry David Thoreau
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.
- Henry David Thoreau
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.
- Henry David Thoreau
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?
- Henry David Thoreau