Top 500 Henry David Thoreau Quotes (2023 Update)
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201. “Let nothing come between you and the light.”

— Henry David Thoreau

202. “The Library is a wilderness of books.”

— Henry David Thoreau

203. “I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.”

— Henry David Thoreau

204. “Simplicity is the law of nature for men as well as for flowers.”

— Henry David Thoreau

205. “If I am not I, who will be?”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

207. “Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”

— Henry David Thoreau

208. “If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal – that is your success.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

210. “Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

212. “That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline.”

— Henry David Thoreau

213. “The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence.”

— Henry David Thoreau

214. “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent.”

— Henry David Thoreau

215. “Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be.”

— Henry David Thoreau

216. “The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”

— Henry David Thoreau

217. “The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.”

— Henry David Thoreau

218. “All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.”

— Henry David Thoreau

219. “In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.”

— Henry David Thoreau

220. “What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.”

— Henry David Thoreau

221. “Wherever you have planted a seed, I am prepared to expect wonders.”

— Henry David Thoreau

222. “Everyone must believe in something. I believe I’ll go canoeing.”

— Henry David Thoreau

223. “Kindness to children, love for children, goodness to children – these are the only investments that never fail.”

— Henry David Thoreau

224. “A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

227. “I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.”

— Henry David Thoreau

228. “When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

— Henry David Thoreau

229. “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

230. “With all your science can you tell me how it is, and when it is, that light comes into the soul?”

— Henry David Thoreau

231. “To be awake is to be completely alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.”

— Henry David Thoreau

232. “I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.”

— Henry David Thoreau

233. “He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.”

— Henry David Thoreau

234. “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.”

— Henry David Thoreau

235. “The violence of love is as much to be dreaded as that of hate.”

— Henry David Thoreau

236. “In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.”

— Henry David Thoreau

237. “Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.”

— Henry David Thoreau

238. “The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.”

— Henry David Thoreau

239. “This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.”

— Henry David Thoreau

240. “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.”

— Henry David Thoreau

241. “In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue.”

— Henry David Thoreau

242. “It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.”

— Henry David Thoreau

243. “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.”

— Henry David Thoreau

244. “Steady labor with the hands, which engrosses the attention also, is unquestionably the best method of removing palaver and sentimentality out of one’s style, both of speaking and writing.”

— Henry David Thoreau

245. “The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.”

— Henry David Thoreau

246. “True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.”

— Henry David Thoreau

247. “The kind uncles and aunts of the race are more esteemed than its true spiritual fathers and mothers.”

— Henry David Thoreau

248. “I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.”

— Henry David Thoreau

249. “On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning.”

— Henry David Thoreau

250. “The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.”

— Henry David Thoreau