Henry David Thoreau Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Henry David Thoreau quotes, Henry David Thoreau sayings, and Henry David Thoreau proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

Farmers are respectable and interesting to me in proportion as they are poor. Henry David Thoreau
It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know. Henry David Thoreau
To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Henry David Thoreau
What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. Henry David Thoreau
It is good policy to be stirring about your affairs, for the reward of activity and energy is that if you do not accomplish the object you had professed to yourself, you do accomplish something else. So, in my botanizing or natural history walks, it commonly turns out that, going for one thing, I get another thing. Henry David Thoreau
True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance. Henry David Thoreau
October is the month for painted leaves.... As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight. Henry David Thoreau
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. Henry David Thoreau
Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then. Henry David Thoreau
If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal -- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation . . . Henry David Thoreau
None are as old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. Henry David Thoreau
The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched. Henry David Thoreau
The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommend it to me. Henry David Thoreau
Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything. Henry David Thoreau
The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. Henry David Thoreau
The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched. 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
This is the month of nuts and nutty thoughts,—that November whose name sounds so bleak and cheerless. Perhaps its harvest of thought is worth more than all the other crops of the year. Henry David Thoreau
October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight. Henry David Thoreau
Spring is brown; summer, green; autumn, yellow; winter, white; November, gray. 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
True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance. Henry David Thoreau
I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence. Henry David Thoreau
Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something. 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
Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance. Henry David Thoreau
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. Henry David Thoreau
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Henry David Thoreau
And if she lose her champion true, tell heaven not despair. Henry David Thoreau
What are the natural features which make a township handsome? A river, with its waterfalls and meadows, a lake, a hill, a cliff or individual rocks, a forest, and ancient trees standing singly. Such things are beautiful; they have a high use which dollars and cents never represent. Henry David Thoreau