Henry David Thoreau

1817 - 1862

The world is but canvas to our imaginations.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Walden Pond

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

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

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines his fate.

Men die of fright and live of confidence.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

It is man who determines what is said, not the words.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

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

The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.

Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

One is enough.

Recommended Readings:
Civil Disobedience, 1849
Walden, 1854

Recommenced Resources:
The Thoreau Society