Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

Compliments and flattery oftenest excite my contempt by the pretension they imply; for who is he that assumes to flatter me? To compliment often implies an assumption of superiority in the complimenter. It is, in fact, a subtle detraction.

Water is the only drink for a wise man.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in Paradise. Love your life.

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fall immediately, they had better aim at something high.

If I knew ... that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

Books are for the most part willfully and hastily written, as parts of a system to supply a want real or imagined.

I did not know that mankind was suffering for want of gold.

Men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.

Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.

Time hides no treasures; we want not its then, but its now.

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

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

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbours.

Men have become the tools of their tools.