Henry David Thoreau quotes - page 9

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen. (Henry David Thoreau)
I am grateful for what I am & have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next 1000 years, & exhaust it. How sweet to think of! My extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it - for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
This bird sees the white man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge... It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Far from New England's blustering shore, New England's worm her hulk shall bore, And sink her in the Indian seas, Twine, wine, and hides, and China teas. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Men will lie on their backs, talking about the the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Man's capacities have never been measured nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedent, so little has been tried. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I do not know how to distinguish between our waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which these things would be by me unavoidable. (Henry David Thoreau)
As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
. He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton he who does not cannot be otherwise. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
All good things are wild, and free. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment to toe that line. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
It is not enough to be industrious so are the ants. What are you industrious about. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone, I never found the companionable as solitude. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. (Henry David Thoreau)
Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin! View quote
Henry David Thoreau
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact. View quote
Henry David Thoreau
Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. View quote
Henry David Thoreau