3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

The next time the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house burn down.

If the day and the 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. All nature is your congratulation . . .

Be it life or death, we crave only reality.

In the long run, men only hit what they aim at.

I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secrets of things.

I have not earned what I have already enjoyed.