Henry David Thoreau: Trending quotes (page 12)

“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?”

“Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.”

“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.”

“I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune.”

“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?”

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

“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.”

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

“To a philosopher all news is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.”

“There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness.”

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

“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.”

“The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.”

“Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”