Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience, but a successful life knows no law.

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and Spring.

I have a deep sympathy with war; it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul.

If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.

The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.

All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad anddoes me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it.

He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behaviour as well as application.

I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk & leaves

It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men.

That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline.

The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

Give me a sentence which no intelligence can understand. There must be a kind of life and palpitation to it, and under its words akind of blood must circulate forever.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, the apple of the world, then!

The little things in life are as interesting as the big ones.

We do not live by justice, but by grace.

When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money?

There are as many strata at different levels of life as there are leaves in a book. When on the higher levels we can remember the lower levels, but when on the lower we cannot remember the higher.

A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

Let go of the past and live the future . . . Live the life you imagined.

Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present.

My life is like a stroll upon the beach.