1.
It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
It is the internal radiance that allows us to identify the magnificence of our environment. The challenge lies not in what we observe, but what we perceive.
2.
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!
Henry David Thoreau
3.
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined...
Henry David Thoreau
Move boldly towards one's ambitions, and strive to actualize the life imagined.
4.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.
Henry David Thoreau
I ventured into the forest to consciously experience life.
5.
be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.
Henry David Thoreau
Be authentic - not a caricature of someone else's ideal.
6.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Henry David Thoreau
The things of the past and future are insignificant in comparison to what is within our souls.
7.
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
Henry David Thoreau
The worth of an item is the amount of existence you sacrifice for it.
8.
The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.
Henry David Thoreau
The utmost disappointment in life is to spend your entire existence angling just to realize it was never a catch that you were pursuing.
9.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
10.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
11.
The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.
Henry David Thoreau
'Those who take the path less travelled are rewarded with unique experiences.'
12.
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
It's not what you observe that matters, it's what you discern.
13.
I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him. None of his institutions control or pervade her. There a different kind of right prevails. In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness. If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself, I should lose all hope. He is constraint, she is freedom to me. He makes me wish for another world. She makes me content with this.
Henry David Thoreau
14.
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau
The only balm for love is to give more of it.
15.
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 which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau
If an individual does not conform to his peers, maybe it is because he follows a separate beat. Allow him to march along with the tune that resonates within him, however distant or unorthodox it may be.
16.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Henry David Thoreau
17.
I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right. Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau
18.
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.
Henry David Thoreau
19.
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David Thoreau
A dawn stroll is a benediction for the entire day.
20.
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Henry David Thoreau
Many people pass away without ever having fully expressed their innermost thoughts and emotions.
21.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
Henry David Thoreau
Do not linger in the past unless you intend to revisit it.
22.
Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds.
Henry David Thoreau
Unimpeachable candor and clarity create an essential aspect of loveliness, such as in dew, pools, and gemstones.
23.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
If one moves boldly towards their aspirations, and makes an effort to lead the life they have envisioned, they will experience a triumph beyond everyday expectations.
24.
Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Henry David Thoreau
Preserve your dreams and ambitions, for without them you will exist but you will not be alive.
25.
When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.
Henry David Thoreau
26.
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David Thoreau
27.
Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
28.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
29.
Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing.
Henry David Thoreau
30.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau
31.
City life is millions of people being lonesome together.
Henry David Thoreau
32.
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Henry David Thoreau
33.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
34.
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.
Henry David Thoreau
35.
Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.
Henry David Thoreau
36.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.
Henry David Thoreau
37.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau
38.
When we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.
Henry David Thoreau
39.
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent.
Henry David Thoreau
40.
Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
Henry David Thoreau
41.
Nature doth thus kindly heal every wound. By the mediation of a thousand little mosses and fungi, the most unsightly objects become radiant of beauty. There seem to be two sides of this world, presented us at different times, as we see things in growth or dissolution, in life or death. And seen with the eye of the poet, as God sees them, all things are alive and beautiful.
Henry David Thoreau
42.
The devil finds work for idle hands.
Henry David Thoreau
43.
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.
Henry David Thoreau
44.
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong.
Henry David Thoreau
45.
Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
Henry David Thoreau
46.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau
47.
The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another. It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.
Henry David Thoreau
48.
I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.
Henry David Thoreau
49.
Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.
Henry David Thoreau
50.
The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
Henry David Thoreau
