100 Famous Quotes By Henry David Thoreau, The Author Of Walden
Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet and philosopher who is best known as the author of the book, ‘Walden’. His essay on ‘Civil Disobedience’ caught the attention of people and influenced the political thoughts and actions of notable figures such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Other than being a renowned and famous writer, Thoreau served as an abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor and historian. In his lifetime, Thoreau contributed invariably writing essays, articles, journals, poetry and books. Thoreau wrote primarily on natural history and philosophy, anticipating the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, surviving historical change or natural decay and advocating the abandonment of waste and illusion. Today, Thoreau is regarded as one of the foremost American writers, both for the modern clarity of his prose style and the prescience of his views on nature and politics. His literary style was unique and distinctive. It interweaved close observation of nature, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and attention to practical detail. Same is also visible in his quotes that convey a powerful message in limited words. Explore this section and find some of the best known quotes by Henry David Thoreau.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
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 he hears, however measured or far away.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
All good things are wild and free.
Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.
There is no remedy for love, but to love more.
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.
Not till we are completely lost or turned around... do we begin to find ourselves.
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Things do not change; we change.
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Any fool can make a rule And any fool will mind it.
