3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Thus no life or experience goes unreported at last; but if it be not solid gold it is gold-leaf, which gilds the furniture of the mind.

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Most men are satisfied if they read or hear read, and perchance have been convicted by the wisdom of one good book, the Bible, and for the rest of their lives vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy reading.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob, before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.

The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.