Henry David Thoreau

I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right. Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it...At last we know not what it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more senses than we think.

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Man is the artificer of his own happiness.

Sweep away the clutter of things that complicate our lives.

This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.

By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent.

In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.

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

Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident. It is as common as life.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.

The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

It is a great art to saunter !

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love. Who can predict his comings and goings? His business calls him out at all hours, even when doctors sleep.

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it.