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.'

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. Henry David Thoreau
Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. Henry David Thoreau
Everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use. Henry David Thoreau
On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning. Henry David Thoreau
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. Henry David Thoreau
We must walk consciously only part way toward our gold, and then leap into the dark to our success. Henry David Thoreau
What’s the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on. Henry David Thoreau
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. Henry David Thoreau
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. Henry David Thoreau
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined. Henry David Thoreau
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. Henry David Thoreau
In company, that person who alone can understand you, you cannot get out of your mind. Henry David Thoreau
Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds. Henry David Thoreau
Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free. Henry David Thoreau
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Henry David Thoreau
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. Henry David Thoreau
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander. Henry David Thoreau
This world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau
Any fool can make a rule / And any fool will mind it. Henry David Thoreau
It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth, farther from heaven these days. Henry David Thoreau
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness. Henry David Thoreau
The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Henry David Thoreau
I do not judge men by anything they can do. Their greatest deed is the impression they make on me. Henry David Thoreau
The tops of mountains are among the unfinished parts of the globe, whether it is a slight insult to the gods to climb and pry into their secrets and try their effect on our humanity. Only daring and insolent men, perchance, go there. Henry David Thoreau
Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. Henry David Thoreau
I have no doubt that they lived pretty much the same sort of life in the Homeric age, for men have always thought more of eating than of fighting; then, as now, their minds ran chiefly on the "hot bread and sweet cakes;" and the fur and lumber trade is an old story to Asia and Europe. Henry David Thoreau
He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past. Henry David Thoreau
It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart it being much more sensitive. Henry David Thoreau
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau
He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past. Henry David Thoreau