3,409 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Great persons are not soon learned, not even their outlines, but they change like the mountains in the horizon as we ride along.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety.

The question is not what you look at—but how you look and whether you see.

Nothing can be more useful to you than a determination not to be hurried.

What's the railroad to me? / I never go to see / Where it ends. / It fills a few hollows, / And makes banks for the swallows, / It sets the sand a-blowing, / And the blackberries a-growing.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My Thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence.

How much of the year is spring and fall! how little can be called summer! The grass is no sooner grown than it begins to wither.

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter.

The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.