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Henry David Thoreau

141 quotes

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher best known for his book *Walden*, a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau championed individualism, civil disobedience, and a deep reverence for nature that continues to influence environmentalists and free thinkers to this day.

“I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Business

All Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

“The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Best

“As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Society

“A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Life

“I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Death

“Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Life

“Dreams are the touchstones of our character.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Dreams

“Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Nature

“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good be good for something.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Good

“The perception of beauty is a moral test.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Beauty

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Life

“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Love

“I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Great

“To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Money

“The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Nature

“I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Business

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Men

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Men

“There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Alone

“The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Truth

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Love