Top 500 Henry David Thoreau Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures.”

— Henry David Thoreau

152. “The eye is the jewel of the body.”

— Henry David Thoreau

153. “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.”

— Henry David Thoreau

154. “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears to hear it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

155. “Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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156. “I love nature, I love the landscape, because it is so sincere. It never cheats me. It never jests. It is cheerfully, musically earnest. I lie and relie on the earth.”

— Henry David Thoreau

157. “The language of friendship is not words but meanings.”

— Henry David Thoreau

158. “Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

159. “Do not despair of your life. You have force enough to overcome your obstacles.”

— Henry David Thoreau

160. “The universe is wider than our views of it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

161. “Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.”

— Henry David Thoreau

162. “He who owns little is little owned.”

— Henry David Thoreau

163. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”

— Henry David Thoreau

164. “Maturity is when all of your mirrors turn into windows.”

— Henry David Thoreau

165. “Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.”

— Henry David Thoreau

166. “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”

— Henry David Thoreau

167. “City life is millions of people being lonesome together.”

— Henry David Thoreau

168. “Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping.”

— Henry David Thoreau

169. “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”

— Henry David Thoreau

170. “Let go of the past and go for the future.”

— Henry David Thoreau

171. “The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.”

— Henry David Thoreau

172. “Men spend the best parts of their lives earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.”

— Henry David Thoreau

173. “We can never have enough of Nature.”

— Henry David Thoreau

174. “Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.”

— Henry David Thoreau

175. “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”

— Henry David Thoreau

176. “Nothing can be more useful to you than a determination not to be hurried.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

178. “Every man must walk to the beat of his own drummer.”

— Henry David Thoreau

179. “There is only one path to Heaven. On Earth, we call it Love.”

— Henry David Thoreau

180. “One should be always on the trail of one’s own deepest nature. For it is the fearless living out of your own essential nature that connects you to the Divine.”

— Henry David Thoreau

181. “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”

— Henry David Thoreau

182. “If I am not I, who will be?”

— Henry David Thoreau

183. “Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.”

— Henry David Thoreau

184. “There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.”

— Henry David Thoreau

185. “It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.”

— Henry David Thoreau

186. “It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.”

— Henry David Thoreau

187. “By my intimacy with nature I find myself withdrawn from man. My interest in the sun and the moon, in the morning and the evening, compels me to solitude.”

— Henry David Thoreau

188. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.”

— Henry David Thoreau

189. “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

— Henry David Thoreau

190. “What is once well done is done forever.”

— Henry David Thoreau

191. “Those who work much do not work hard.”

— Henry David Thoreau

192. “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”

— Henry David Thoreau

193. “Men are born to succeed, not to fail.”

— Henry David Thoreau

194. “Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.”

— Henry David Thoreau

195. “To have made even one person’s life a little better, that is to succeed.”

— Henry David Thoreau

196. “You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.”

— Henry David Thoreau

197. “Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection.”

— Henry David Thoreau

198. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.”

— Henry David Thoreau

199. “Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.”

— Henry David Thoreau

200. “Read not the Times, read the Eternities.”

— Henry David Thoreau