Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

Such is the never-failing beauty and accuracy of language, the most perfect art in the world; the chisel of a thousand years retouches it.

In respect to religion and the healing art, all nations are still in a state of barbarism. In the most civilized countries the priest is still but a Powwow, and the physician a Great Medicine.

The sea, vast and wild as it is, bears thus the waste and wrecks of human art to its remotest shore. There is no telling what it may not vomit up.

Nature is mythical and mystical always, and works with the license and extravagance of genius. She has her luxurious and florid style as well as art.

Art may varnish and gild, but it can do no more.

But the eyes, though they are no sailors, will never be satisfied with any model, however fashionable, which does not answer all the requisitions of art.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

Beware all enterprises that require new clothes.

It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see.

Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds.

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

Such is beauty ever,-neither here nor there, now nor then,-neither in Rome nor in Athens, but wherever there is a soul to admire.

As in many countries precious metals belong to the crown, so here more precious natural objects of rare beauty should belong to the public.

There is just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to appreciate, and not a grain more. ... A man sees only what concerns him.

Even the best things are not equal to their fame.

Invariably our best nights were those when it rained.

The best way to correct a mistake is to make it right.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we might go and meet their ideal cousins.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

We are constantly invited to be who we are.

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors; for to dwell upon them is to add to the offense.

I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.