Henry David Thoreau Quotes

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Henry David Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dream, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagines, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
Henry David Thoreau

Be not simply good; be good for something.
Henry David Thoreau

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
Henry David Thoreau

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
Henry David Thoreau

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
Henry David Thoreau

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
Henry David Thoreau

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Henry David Thoreau

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.
Henry David Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
Henry David Thoreau

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
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

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Henry David Thoreau

What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.
Henry David Thoreau

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
Henry David Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
Henry David Thoreau

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Henry David Thoreau

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

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

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

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
Henry David Thoreau

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
Henry David Thoreau

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
Henry David Thoreau

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Henry David Thoreau

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
Henry David Thoreau

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?
Henry David Thoreau

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.
Henry David Thoreau

Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
Henry David Thoreau

Being is the great explainer.
Henry David Thoreau

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Henry David Thoreau

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau

My friend is one - who take me for what I am.
Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not fail.
Henry David Thoreau

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
Henry David Thoreau

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau