Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

I do not know how to distinguish between waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?

Life is grand, and so are its environments of Past and Future. Would the face of nature be so serene and beautiful if man's destiny were not equally so?

Go confidently ... Live the life that you imagined.

It is not enough that our life is an easy one. We must live on the stretch, retiring to our rest like soldiers on the eve of a battle, looking forward to the strenuous sortie of the morrow.

Endeavor to live the life you have imagined.

Life is so short that it is not wise to take roundabout ways, nor can we spend much time in waiting.... We have not got half-way to dawn yet.

I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.

To live a better life,--this surely can be done.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distant, half a dozen times within a fortnight, that I might know exactly when it opened.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

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

Be wary of technology; it is often merely an improved means to an unimproved end.

O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety.

I am grateful for what I have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.