Top 500 Henry David Thoreau Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.”

— Henry David Thoreau

202. “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

203. “My profession is to always find God in nature.”

— Henry David Thoreau

204. “Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”

— Henry David Thoreau

205. “Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present.”

— Henry David Thoreau

206. “Let nothing come between you and the light.”

— Henry David Thoreau

207. “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

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

— Henry David Thoreau

209. “Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

211. “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

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

— Henry David Thoreau

213. “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

215. “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

216. “Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.”

— Henry David Thoreau

217. “Men must speak English who can write Sanskrit; they must speak a modern language who write, perchance, an ancient and universal one.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

222. “Time is like a handful of sand – the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers.”

— Henry David Thoreau

223. “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

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

227. “All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.”

— Henry David Thoreau

228. “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

229. “The voice of nature is always encouraging.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

231. “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

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

236. “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

237. “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

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

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

242. “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

243. “It’s not enough to be busy.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

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

— Henry David Thoreau

248. “As I love nature, as I love singing birds, and gleaming stubble, and flowing rivers, and morning and evening, and summer and winter, I love thee, my Friend.”

— Henry David Thoreau

249. “For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.”

— Henry David Thoreau

250. “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