Walden Pond Quotes

• 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

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Walden ch. 18 (1854)

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• 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)

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• 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

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• It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Giving Up, Learning

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.27, Cambridge University Press

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• Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fashion, Teenage, Laughing

  1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'Economy'.

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• I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that 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. . . . In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Dream, Live Life

  Walden ch. 18 (1854)

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• In wildness is the preservation of the world.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Camping, World, Transcendentalism

  "Walking" (1862)

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• 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

  Success, Music, Forgiveness

  Walden ch. 18 (1854). Frequently quoted as "marches to the tune of a different drummer."

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• While some men believe in the infinite, some ponds will be thought to be bottomless.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Believe, Men, Ponds

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.487, Delphi Classics

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• Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Libertarian Party, Historical

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.23, Heron Dance Press

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• Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Two, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.144

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• Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Time, Fishing, Eternity

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.64, Courier Corporation

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• Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Positive, Attitude, Feet

  Henry David Thoreau, Laura Ross (2009). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods: Bold-faced Ideas for Living a Truly Transcendent Life”, p.373, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.

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• I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Love, Inspirational, Loneliness

  1854 Walden, or Life in the Woods,'Solitude'.

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• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

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• Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Love You, House

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.232, Xist Publishing

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• I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Doors, Years

  Henry David Thoreau (2010). “Walden”, p.300, Bibliolis Books

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• 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

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Walden ch. 18 (1854)

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Adventure, Dead Poets Society

  Walden ch. 2 (1854)

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• Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.

  E. M. Forster

  Fashion, Clothes, Deep Life

  E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.448, Delphi Classics

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• The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Men, Law

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• The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Cheer, Spring, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.232, Xist Publishing

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• No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking, Way, Ancient

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.27, Cambridge University Press

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• The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Reflection, Men, House

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.232, Xist Publishing

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• It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Fall, Order, Track

  Henry David Thoreau (2010). “Walden”, p.300, Bibliolis Books

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