Henry David Thoreau Quotes and its meanings

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

That government is best which governs least.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Things do not change we change.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

Faith never makes a confession.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

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

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

That government is best which governs least.

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.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Being is the great explainer.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart it being much more sensitive.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

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.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

Make the most of your regrets never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

I had three chairs in my house one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.