Henry David Thoreau

The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature, causes the unknown to reveal themselves. Almost any mode of observation will be successful at last, for what is most wanted is method.

All that man has to say or do that can possibly concern mankind is in some shape or other to tell the story of his love-to sing, and, if he is fortunate and keeps alive, he will be forever in love.

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

All sound heard at the greatest possible distance produces one and the same effect, a vibration of the universal lyre, just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant ridge of earth interesting to our eyes by the azure tint it imparts to it.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

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

Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmie that he can? Let everyone mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made

I cannot read a single word of the Hindoos without being elevated.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact!

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

Renew thyself completely each day.