Inspiring Henry David Thoreau Quotes
Henry David Thoreau was an American poet, author, essayist, naturalist, abolitionist, tax resister, surveyor, historian, development critic as well as practical philosopher. He was author of the book Walden and a New England Transcendentalist. Here are some of his famous quotes.
- “The universe is wider than our views of it.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” - Henry David Thoreau
- “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “There is no remedy for love but to love more.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Do not lose hold of your dreams or asprirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Truths and roses have thorns about them.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “All good things are wild and free.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?” - Henry David Thoreau
- “I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
- “This world is but a canvas to our imaginations.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Be not simply good; be good for something.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Not till we are completely lost or turned around…do we begin to find ourselves.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The heart is forever inexperienced.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Things do not change; we change.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” - 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
- “It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Live the life you’ve dreamed” - Henry David Thoreau
- “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Those whom we can love, we can hate; to others we are indifferent.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things” - Henry David Thoreau
- “’Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “Sweep away the clutter of things that complicate our lives.” - Henry David Thoreau
- “If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” - Henry David Thoreau
The above were few of the popular quotes by Henry David Thoreau; if you have more of his quotes do share in the comments section.
