Henry David Thoreau Quotes

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

How perfect an invention is glass! There is a fitness in glass windows which reflect the sun morning and evening, windows, the doorways of light, thus reflecting the rays of that luminary with a splendor only second to itself.

Birds shoot like twigs. The young are as big as the old when they leave the nest; have only got to harden and mature.

Sailing is much like flying, and from the birth of our race men have been charmed by it.

Joy and sorrow, success and failure, grandeur and meanness, and indeed most words in the English language do not mean for me what they do for my neighbors.

It is necessary to find out exactly what books to read on a given subject. Though there may be a thousand books written upon it, it is only important to read three or four; they will contain all that is essential, and a few pages will show which they are.

But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.

I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse.

"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 also I 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."

What shall we make of the fact that you have only to stand on your head a moment to be enchanted with the beauty of the landscape?

Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends.

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.