Henry David Thoreau - Citations - Nature, Liberté, Liberté

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

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.

That government is best which governs least.

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

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

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

The only remedy for love is to love more.

Life in us is like the water in a river.

I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.

I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.

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.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

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 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.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

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.