Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.
— Henry David Thoreau
Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
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.
What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.
If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
What is once well done is done forever.
If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.
Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
That government is best which governs least.
We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
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.
When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
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.
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.
It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.
Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.
