Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.

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

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.

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.

The higher the mountain on which you stand, the less change in the prospect from year to year, from age to age. Above a certain height there is no change.

One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.

Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced.

The law will never make men free, it is men that have to make the law free.

Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science.

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

This world is but a canvas to our imaginations.

They take their pride in making their dinner cost much; I take my pride in making my dinner cost little

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

The eye is the jewel of the body.

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

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

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.