Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

We are more anxious to speak than to be heard

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of.

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;

Det mesta som betraktas som gott är jag innerligt övertygad om är dåligt, och finns det något jag ångrar är det med största sannolikhet mitt goda uppförande.

Un uomo saggio non lascia il giusto alla mercé del caso né desidera che esso si affermi attraverso il potere della maggioranza.

Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born?

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well. <...> Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.

I rejoice that there are owls. Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men. It

I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not;—but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them.

Merely to come into the world the heir of a fortune is not to be born, but to be still-born, rather.

The Church has much improved within a few years; but the Press is almost, without exception, corrupt. I believe that, in this country, the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence, than the Church did in its worst period. We are not a religious people, but we are a nation of politicians. We do not care for the Bible, but we do care for the newspaoer

L'opinione pubblica è un tiranno assai debole, paragonata alla nostra opinione personale. Ciò che determina o piuttosto indica il fato di un uomo è l'opinione che egli ha di se stesso.

All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius

Khi s?ng trong r?ng, tôi có nhi?u khách hÆ¡n b?t kì th?i gian nào khác trong ??i tôi. Trong khía c?nh này, b?n bè tôi ???c sàng l?c Ä'Æ¡n thu?n ch? do tôi s?ng cách xa thành ph?.

guardatevi da tutte le imprese che richiedono abiti nuovi, invece che nuovi «indossatori». Se non c'è l'uomo nuovo, come si potranno fare abiti che gli si adattino? Se dovete intraprendere qualche cosa di nuovo, fatelo nei vostri abiti vecchi.

Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me.

What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast?

to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

The only people who ever get any place interesting are the people who get lost. That's why the planets are so much better company than the stars — they keep wandering back and forth across the sky and you never know where you're going to find them.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

Cómo podría recordar su ignorancia —según requiere su crecimiento— quien ha de usar tanto su conocimiento?

The free men of New England have only to refrain from purchasing and reading these sheets, have only to withhold their cents, to kill a score of them at once.