Henry David Thoreau

Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind.

I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.

We cannot well do without our sins; they are the highway of our virtue.

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.

If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Methinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.

Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.

Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There a different kind of right prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

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

Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.