Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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

City life - millions of people being lonesome together.

He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life.

I have travelled a good deal in Concord.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.

It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear.

Between whom there is hearty truth there is love.

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Beware all enterprises that require new clothes.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

We like that a sentence should read as if its author had he held a plough instead of a pen could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end.

As for style of writing if one has anything to say it drops from him simply and directly as a stone falls to the ground.

The youth gets together this material to build a bridge to the moon or perchance a palace or temple on earth and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.