Henry David Thoreau

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

— Henry David Thoreau

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

— Henry David Thoreau

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.

— Henry David Thoreau

Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.

— Henry David Thoreau

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

— Henry David Thoreau

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.

— Henry David Thoreau

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.

— Henry David Thoreau

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

— Henry David Thoreau

I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

— Henry David Thoreau

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

— Henry David Thoreau

Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.

— Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

— Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

— Henry David Thoreau

I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.

— Henry David Thoreau

Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident--It is as common as life.

— Henry David Thoreau

We've wholly forgotten how to die. But be sure you do die nevertheless. Do your work, and finish it. If you know how to begin, you will know when to end

— Henry David Thoreau

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them.

— Henry David Thoreau

What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

— Henry David Thoreau

The Indian … stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison.

— Henry David Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

— Henry David Thoreau

No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

— Henry David Thoreau

They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.

— Henry David Thoreau

The fate of the country does not depend on … what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.

— Henry David Thoreau

Most of the stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself alive.

— Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear.

— Henry David Thoreau