1817-1862, American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist
Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.
Henry David Thoreau – [Work]


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.
Henry David Thoreau – [Luxury]


Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.
Henry David Thoreau – [Health]


My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologies. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought — with these I deal.
Henry David Thoreau – [Facts]


Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.
Henry David Thoreau – [Nations]


Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice.
Henry David Thoreau – [Self-knowledge]


None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm
Henry David Thoreau – [Age and Aging]


Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.
Henry David Thoreau – [Hospitality]


Of what significance are the things you can forget.
Henry David Thoreau – [Memory]


On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.
Henry David Thoreau – [Bereavement]


One farmer says to me, ''You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;'' and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.
Henry David Thoreau – [Vegetarianism]


One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then
Henry David Thoreau – [Friends and Friendship]


One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
Henry David Thoreau – [Flowers]


Only the traveling is good which reveals to me the value of home and enables me to enjoy it better.
Henry David Thoreau – [Travel and Tourism]


Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David Thoreau – [Technology]


Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.
Henry David Thoreau – [Simplicity]


Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the saints.
Henry David Thoreau – [Saints]


Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.
Henry David Thoreau – [Memory]


Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
Henry David Thoreau – [Dreams]


Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.
Henry David Thoreau – [Morality]

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