Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought.

When he has obtained those things which are necessary in life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now.

After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. 'Pray tell me any thing new that has happened to a man any where on this globe,' — and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wichito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself.

That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—"That government is best which governs not at all;

mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields.

Most men never appear to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have.

Os homens trabalham à sombra de um erro, lançando ao solo para adubo o que têm de melhor. Por uma sina ilusória, vulgarmente chamada necessidade, desgastam-se a amontoar tesouros que a traça e a ferrugem estragarão e que surgem ladrões para roubar. É uma vida de imbecis, como perceberão ao fim dela, se não antes.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

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

I make myself rich by making my wants few.

There is no remedy for love but to love more."- Henry David Thoreau

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

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

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

The lover wants no partiality. He says, Be so kind as to be just.

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

I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.

Be not simply good - be good for something.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

Whate'er we leave to God, God does and blesses us.

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 thumbnail.

What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.