Quotes by Henry David Thoreau


Henry David Thoreau
(born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862)
American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

what you become

What you get by achieving your goals is as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

— Henry David Thoreau

capable of being

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

— Henry David Thoreau

canvas to our imagination

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

— Henry David Thoreau

what you bring to it yourself

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

— Henry David Thoreau

outlived enthusiasm

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

— Henry David Thoreau

what a man thinks of himself

It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

— Henry David Thoreau

imagination that is wounded first

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

— Henry David Thoreau

hopes and dreams

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

— Henry David Thoreau

castles in the air

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

— Henry David Thoreau

a deep mental path

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