Henry David Thoreau

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.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

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

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

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

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.

There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dulness. I need only suggest what kind of sermons are still listened to in the most enlightened countries. There are such words as joy and sorrow, but they are only the burden of a psalm, sung with a nasal twang, while we believe in the ordinary and mean.

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

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

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

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

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

It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the universal favor with which the New Testament is outwardly received, and even the bigotry with which it is defended, there is no hospitality shown to, there is no appreciation of, the order of truth with which it deals.

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.

Faith never makes a confession.