Top 25 Quotes by Henry David Thoreau of 2776

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.

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

Looks, Beauty Within

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

Struggle, Past, Simple

Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.

Henry David Thoreau

Thinking Of You, Thinking, Think For Yourself

Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Live Life, Creating Life, Finding Yourself

Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.

Henry David Thoreau

Couple, Nuts, Tree

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.21, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined...

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

"Walden". Book by Henry David Thoreau, 1854.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

Henry David Thoreau

Love, Inspirational, Money

Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.125, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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

Life, Single, Inspiration

Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.27, Heron Dance Press

To have made even one person's life a little better, that is to succeed.

Henry David Thoreau

Littles, Succeed, Philanthropy

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.87, BookBaby

The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.

Henry David Thoreau

People, Interesting, Lost

A man's wealth is measured by what he doesn't need.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, Needs, Wealth

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Life, Motivational

Tough times don't last but tough people do. No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch. Men are born to succeed, not fail.

Henry David Thoreau

Men, People, Tough Times

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

Henry David Thoreau

Motivational, Courage, Regret

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.

Henry David Thoreau

Nature, Adventure, Dead Poets Society

Walden ch. 2 (1854)

That government is best which governs least.

Henry David Thoreau

Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.

Henry David Thoreau

Motivational, Death, Greatness

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

Inspirational, Life, Death

Walden ch. 2 (1854)

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

Fishing, Tragedy, Life Is

The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.

Henry David Thoreau

Kindness, Men, Way

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Confidence, Lying

Attributed in "The Life You Were Born to Live : A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose" by Dan Millman, (p. xi), 1995.