Henry David Thoreau Quotes

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

By Henry David Thoreau

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

By Henry David Thoreau

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

By Henry David Thoreau

I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the braver every in a majority

By Henry David Thoreau

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.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have learned this at least by my experiment that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have learned this at least by my experiment: if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have lived some thirty years on this planet and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have never found a companion so companionable as solitude.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

By Henry David Thoreau

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

By Henry David Thoreau

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

By Henry David Thoreau

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

By Henry David Thoreau

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limit of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced.

By Henry David Thoreau

I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake his neighbours up.

By 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.

By Henry David Thoreau

I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman simply because she has regular features.

By Henry David Thoreau

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

By Henry David Thoreau

I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.

By Henry David Thoreau

How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.

By Henry David Thoreau

How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we may go and meet their ideal cousins.

By Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

By Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are the richest.

By Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do want society.

By Henry David Thoreau

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not bad... it looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults, even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may have perhaps so

By Henry David Thoreau