Henry David Thoreau
United States
12 Jul 1817 // 6 May 1862
Writer / Author / Poet
12 Jul 1817 // 6 May 1862
Writer / Author / Poet
Quotes
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How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live!
Only the defeated and deserters go to war
It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and the other to hear
The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit - not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic
Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, this is no other life but this
It is as hard to see oneself as to look backwards without turning around
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone
It is never too late to give up our prejudices
Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science
We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays