If misery loves company, misery has company enough.
— Henry David Thoreau
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.
To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.
If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.
The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.
How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.
The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.
The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.
How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.
Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.
The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.
We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.
Being is the great explainer.
I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.
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.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
The heart is forever inexperienced.
The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.
Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.
It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.
The perception of beauty is a moral test.
The language of friendship is not words but meanings.
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.
There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?
That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.
In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
