Henry David Thoreau Quotes

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  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

  612 Copy quote

• 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

  603 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking Of You, Thinking, Think For Yourself

  115 Copy quote

• 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

  74 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Couple, Nuts, Tree

  78 Copy quote
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  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.

  409 Copy quote
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  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.

  487 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Needs, Wealth

  8 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Littles, Succeed, Philanthropy

  65 Copy quote

• 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

  344 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  People, Interesting, Lost

  299 Copy quote
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  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

  302 Copy quote

• 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

  426 Copy quote

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

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Courage, Regret

  167 Copy quote
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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)

  470 Copy quote

• Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Greatness, Law Of Attraction, Goal

  16 Copy quote

• 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)

  238 Copy quote

• If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Religious, Freedom

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Savio 1

  136 Copy quote
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  Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Song, Men

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

  154 Copy quote

• Dissent without action is consent.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Action, Dissent, Consent

  25 Copy quote

• 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

  340 Copy quote

• be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Being Yourself, Real

  405 Copy quote

• Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Travel, Character

  121 Copy quote
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  Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Business, Simple

  Walden ch. 2 (1854)

  121 Copy quote

• 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

  75 Copy quote

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