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.'

This was what you might call a bran-new country; the only roads were of Nature's making, and the few houses were camps. Here, then, one could no longer accuse institutions and society, but must front the true source of evil. Henry David Thoreau
I never fastened my door, night or day, though I was to be absent several days; not even when the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. and yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. Henry David Thoreau
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. I do not wish to go below now. Henry David Thoreau
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. Henry David Thoreau
I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer's heat is undiminished, and I realized what a friend I am losing. Henry David Thoreau
When we shift from the shady to the sunny side of the house, and sit there with an extra coat for warmth, our green and leafy and pulpy thoughts acquire color and flavor, and perchance a sweet nuttiness at last, worth your cracking. Henry David Thoreau
As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just because they fall, so the year near its setting. October is it's sunset sky; November the later twilight. Henry David Thoreau
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance, they make the latitudes and longitudes. Henry David Thoreau
How did these beautiful rainbow tints get into the shell of the freshwater clam buried in the mud at the bottom of our dark river? Even the sea-bottom tells of the upper skies. Henry David Thoreau
Time is like a handful of sand the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers. Henry David Thoreau
And if she lose her champion true, tell heaven not despair. Henry David Thoreau
Poverty it is life near the bone, where it is sweetest. Henry David Thoreau
Not till June can the grass be said to be waving in the fields. When the frogs dream. and the grass waves, and the buttercups toss their heads, and the heat disposes to bathe in the ponds and streams, then is summer begun. Henry David Thoreau
What's the railroad to me? / I never go to see / Where it ends. / It fills a few hollows, / And makes banks for the swallows, / It sets the sand a-blowing, / And the blackberries a-growing. Henry David Thoreau
When the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I love to wander and muse over them in their graves. Here are no lying nor vain epitaphs. Henry David Thoreau
Genius is not a retainer to any emperor. Henry David Thoreau
I hate museums; there is nothing so weighs upon my spirits. They are the catacombs of nature. One green bud of spring, one willow catkin, one faint trill from a migrating sparrow would set the world on its legs again. The life that is in a single green weed is of more worth than all this death. Henry David Thoreau
Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse. Henry David Thoreau
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Henry David Thoreau
Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. Henry David Thoreau
As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society. Henry David Thoreau
If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. Henry David Thoreau
I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk and leaves. Henry David Thoreau
It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious. Henry David Thoreau
If not good, why then evil, / If not good god, good devil. / Goodness! you hypocrite, come out of that, / Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. Henry David Thoreau
Daydream If you have built castles in the air, that is where they should be; now put foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau
The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument. Henry David Thoreau
The perception of beauty is a moral test. Henry David Thoreau
All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy. Henry David Thoreau
How few are aware that in winter, when the earth is covered with snow and ice...the sunset is double. The winter is coming when I shall walk the sky. Henry David Thoreau