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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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation
I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which these things would be by me unavoidable
There is no remedy for love but to love more
I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage
We have built for this world a family mansion, and the next a family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of man's struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher state to be forgotten
Goodness is the only investment that never fails
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new
What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook
The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it
Truths and roses have thorns about them
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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