Henry David Thoreau was a 19th Century American author, poet, philosopher, and environmentalist. He has been cited as one of the founders of the transcendentalist movement in America.
Thoreau’s philosophy of life can be summarised as a simple assertion that “we are already that which we seek.” This assertion is often interpreted to mean that the individual is free to do whatever they want within the natural world. In 1849 he famously refused to pay taxes that were imposed by the state of Massachusetts. His refusal to pay taxes was a direct protest against slavery and other issues he felt the government was ignoring.
He wrote about his experiences in Walden, which reflected living simply in nature and having a superficial lifestyle with minimal impact on the world around him.
His most famous quotes are his words of wisdom that will change your outlook on life and make you the person to see life through different eyes.
93 Inspirational Henry David Thoreau Quotes
“Be yourself, not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
“It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.”
“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.”
“Be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
“You must not only aim right, but draw the bow with all your might.”
“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
“I make myself rich by making my wants few.”
“Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.”
“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.”
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
“Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.”
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”
“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.”
“To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.”
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the life you have imagined.”
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity.”
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.”
“Be not simply good – be good for something.”
“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”
“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
“The world is but a canvas for our imagination.”
“It is never too late to give up our prejudices.”
“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”
“be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right,”
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
“Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.”
“Never look back – unless you’re planning to go that way.”
“To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
“Dreams are the touchstones of our character.”
“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”
“For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.”
“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.”
“All good things are wild and free.”
“Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
“Surely joy is the condition of life.”
“It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.”
“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn you attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
“When it comes time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”
“It often happens that a man develops a deeper love and friendship with his pet cat or dog than he does with most of the other humans in his life.”
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
“To be awake is to be alive.”
“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.”
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
“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.”
“I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in it’s gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.”
“It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise”
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”
“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.”
“Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify.”
“When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”
“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity”
“What is once well done is done forever.”
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
“The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.”
“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”
“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!“
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
“The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.”
“Things do not change, we do.”
“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour.”
“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”
“Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.”
“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”
“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.”
“Things do not change; we change.”
