Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Integrity

• Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Friendship, Nature

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.15, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Cheating, Integrity

  Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.83, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

• Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Business, Integrity, Bad Day

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.133, Graphic Arts Books

• Be not merely good. Be good for something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Good Times, Be Good

• We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Time, Integrity, Vices

  Henry David Thoreau (1975). “Early Essays and Miscellanies”, p.224, Princeton University Press

• What is once well done is done forever.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Inspiration, Forever

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.10, Hayes Barton Press

• Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Nails, Machines

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.193, Graphic Arts Books

• It is not enough that we are truthful; we must cherish and carry out high purposes to be truthful about.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Integrity, Purpose

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1140, Delphi Classics

• The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Character, Ethics

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.199, Delphi Classics

• The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Leisure

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.156, Penguin

• To the man who cherishes a secret in his breast, there is a still greater secret unexplored. Our most indifferent acts may be a matter for secrecy, but whatever we do with the utmost truthfulness and integrity, by virtue of its pureness, must be transparent as light.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Light

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.222, Xist Publishing

• We have need to be as sturdy pioneers still as Miles Standish, or Church, or Lovewell. We are to follow on another trail, it is true, but one as convenient for ambushes. What if the Indians are exterminated, are not savages as grim prowling about the clearings today?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Bravery, What If

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.85, Xist Publishing

• Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as toil gives to sour bread. The breath with which the poet utters his verse must be that by which he lives.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Integrity, Holiday

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.243, Xist Publishing

• I expect a time when, or rather an integrity by which, a man will get his coat as honestly and as perfectly fitting as a tree itsbark. Now our garments are typical of our conformity to the ways of the world, i.e., of the devil, and to some extent react on us and poison us, like that shirt which Hercules put on.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Tree

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.179, Jazzybee Verlag

• What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator.

  Henry David Thoreau

  God, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.276, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

• It makes no odds where a man goes or stays, if he is only about his business.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Travel, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.197, Jazzybee Verlag

• A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Honesty, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.688, Simon and Schuster

• How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Truth, Integrity

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.361, Penguin

• Some, it seems to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Thinking

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1225, Delphi Classics

• For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Integrity, Responsibility

  Henry David Thoreau (1894). “The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: With Bibliographical Introductions and Full Indexes”

• I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Integrity, Significance

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.142, Jazzybee Verlag

• You need not rest your reputation on the dinners you give.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Giving, Needs

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.92, Cosimo, Inc.

• A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Character, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.105, Penguin

• Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Clothes, Want

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

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