3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

As far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.

The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the first water, - so anterior, so superior, to all the changes that are to take place on their shores, even now civil and refined, and fair as they can ever be.

Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.

None of the brute creation requires more than Food and Shelter

to be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independences, magnanimity, and trust. it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically but practically. the success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly

In the long run men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

Silence is the communing of a conscious soul with itself.