3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

The only fruit which even much living yields seems to be often only some trivial success,--the ability to do some slight thing better. We make conquest only of husks and shells for the most part,--at least apparently,--but sometimes these are cinnamon and spices, you know.

We have need to be as sturdy pioneers still as Miles Standish, or Church, or Lovewell. We are to follow on another trail, it is true, but one as convenient for ambushes. What if the Indians are exterminated, are not savages as grim prowling about the clearings today?

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice.

Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science

Men have become the tools of their tools.

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.

The only sin in the world is ignorance.

The newest is but the oldest made visible to our senses.