Inspirational Quotations by Henry David Thoreau

If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.
—Henry David Thoreau

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.
—Henry David Thoreau

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
—Henry David Thoreau

The mass of men lead quiet lives of desperation.
—Henry David Thoreau

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.
—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
Topics: Achievement

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
—Henry David Thoreau

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Value

It’s not worth our while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
—Henry David Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
—Henry David Thoreau

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
—Henry David Thoreau

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.
—Henry David Thoreau

We will miss everything beautiful in our own lives, because we were too busy hunting something else, losing touch.
—Henry David Thoreau

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.
—Henry David Thoreau

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it
—Henry David Thoreau

There is no rule more invariable than that we
are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.
—Henry David Thoreau

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
—Henry David Thoreau

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.
—Henry David Thoreau

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal,
and then leap in the dark to our success.
—Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!
Live the life you’ve imagined!
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.
—Henry David Thoreau

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.
—Henry David Thoreau

True friendship can afford true knowledge.
It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.
—Henry David Thoreau

To enhance the quality of the day…
That is the highest of the arts.
—Henry David Thoreau

It is only when we forget all
our learning that we begin to know.
—Henry David Thoreau

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.
—Henry David Thoreau

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Character

My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking-places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas in nature.
—Henry David Thoreau

The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Values

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Thoughts, Ideal, Thought

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Reading, Books, Literature, Book

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,
not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.
—Henry David Thoreau

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

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.
—Henry David Thoreau

It’s not enough to be busy.
The question is: What are we busy about?
—Henry David Thoreau

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.
—Henry David Thoreau

Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it will elude you; but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
—Henry David Thoreau

Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction, a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.
—Henry David Thoreau

Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.
—Henry David Thoreau

What we do best or most perfectly is what we have most thoroughly learned by the longest practice, and at length it falls from us without our notice, as a leaf from a tree.
—Henry David Thoreau

Live in each season as it passes;
breath the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit,
and resign yourself to the influences of each.
—Henry David Thoreau

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
—Henry David Thoreau

There is no value in life except
what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place
except what you bring to it yourself.
—Henry David Thoreau

I heartily accept the motto,—“That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—“That government is best which governs not at all” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
—Henry David Thoreau

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.
—Henry David Thoreau
Topics: Virtue, Riches, Wealth

I know no more encouraging fact
than the unquestionable ability of man
to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
—Henry David Thoreau

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