Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

Since all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.

Every man has to learn the points of the compass again as often as he awakes, whether from sleep or any abstraction.

When a man dies he kicks the dust.

A man had better starve at once than lose his innocence in the process of getting his bread.

It is remarkable that there are few men so well employed, so much to their minds, but that a little money or fame would commonly buy them off from their present pursuit.

There are some things which a man never speaks of, which are much finer kept silent about. To the highest communications we only lend a silent ear.

Nothing can shock a brave man but dullness.

In my short experience of human life, the outward obstacles, if there were any such, have not been living men, but the institutions of the dead.

Tough times don't last but tough people do. No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch. Men are born to succeed, not fail.

Men are as innocent as the morning to the unsuspicious.

Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are NOT good?

It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.

The poet is a man who lives at last by watching his moods. An old poet comes at last to watch his moods as narrowly as a cat does a mouse.

Men talk of freedom! How many are free to think? Free from fear, from perturbation, from prejudice? Nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand are perfect slaves.

The mass of men are very easily imposed on. They have their runways in which they always travel, and are sure to fall into any pit or box-trap set therein.

The question is whether you can bear freedom. At present the vast majority of men, whether white or black, require the discipline of labor which enslaves them for their own good.

Such were garrulous and noisy eras, which no longer yield any sound, but the Grecian or silent and melodious era is ever soundingand resounding in the ears of men.

A thoroughbred business man cannot enter heartily upon the business of life without first looking into his accounts.

Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.

For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.

Men will tell you sometimes that "money's hard." That shows it was not made to eat, I say.... Some of those who sank with the steamer the other day found out that money was heavy too.

The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit; it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.

The outward is only the outside of that which is within. Men are not concealed under habits, but are revealed by them; they are their true clothes.

Of all the men who were said to be my contemporaries, it seemed to me that John Brown was the only one who had not died.