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“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.”

Henry David Thoreau

1847
Journals (1838-1859)
Variant: Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

“The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?”

Henry David Thoreau

Source: Walden and Other Writings

“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.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?”

Henry David Thoreau book Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience (1849)

“A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors”

Henry David Thoreau

Source: Walden, or Life in the Woods

“Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”

Henry David Thoreau

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

Henry David Thoreau

Variant: I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

“We should impart our courage and not our despair.”

Henry David Thoreau

“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.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Walden (1854), p.18

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Begin where you are and such as you are, without aiming mainly to become of more worth, and with kindness aforethought, go about doing good.”

Henry David Thoreau

“If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.”

Henry David Thoreau

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Thursday

“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.”

Henry David Thoreau

July 14, 1852
Journals (1838-1859)

“The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden