Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience“, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Henry David Thoreau quotes will motivate you.
Best Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- “It’s the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined…” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“I have lately got back to that glorious society called Solitude.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” ~ Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Maturity is when all of your mirrors turn into windows.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “To have made even one person’s life a little better, that is to succeed.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“I make myself rich by making my wants few.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.” ~ 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
- “be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” ~ Henry David Thoreau, Henry David Thoreau quotes on nature
- “Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“Dissent without action is consent.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “The scenery, when it is truly seen, reacts on the life of the seer. How to live. How to get the most of life…. How to extract its honey from the flower of the world.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “There is no beginning too small.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “We are constantly invited to be who we are.” ~ Henry David Thoreau Quotes
- “How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls!” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “The only way, to tell the truth, is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “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
- “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
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“The soul grows by subtraction, not addition.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “In the long run, you hit only what you aim at.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “Heroes are often the most ordinary of men.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
