Henry David Thoreau

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

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.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

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

There is one consolation in being sick and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.

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

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed... Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

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.

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

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

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. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

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

Be not simply good - be good for something.

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

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

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.