Explore Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity is the peak of civilization.

Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

Law never made men a whit more just.

When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly, I think any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

For a man needs only to be turned around once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost...Not 'til we are lost do we begin to find ourselves.

Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are NOT good?

When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I will bend my steps, [I] submit myself to my instinct to decide for me.

For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself

Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up.

As a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up.

Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent.

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its opposite halves - sometimes split into quarters - which grind on each other. Not only individuals but states have thus a confirmed dyspepsia.

What is the singing of birds, or any natural sound, compared with the voice of one we love.

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense.

In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely; as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial.

Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward. Whether passed on a bed of sickness or a tented field, it is ever the same fair play and admits no foolish distinction. Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

They take great pride in making their dinner cost much; I take my pride in making my dinner cost so little.