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Let’s introduce you to a fascinating figure from the past – Henry David Thoreau. Born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, Thoreau was a man of many talents and interests. He wasn’t your typical historical figure, but he did leave a mark on American literature and philosophy. He had a way with words that could inspire or motivate anyone. So, today we’ll share 90 such Henry David Thoreau quotes that you can live by.
Picture this: a poet, wandering through the woods, taking in the beauty of nature and penning down his profound thoughts. That was Henry David Thoreau in a nutshell. He was quite the rebel, straying away from conventional societal norms and questioning the status quo.
Thoreau had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and wasn't afraid to challenge the world around him. One of his most famous escapades was when he decided to live at Walden Pond in Massachusetts for two years in a simple, self-built cabin. Talk about determination!
This bold experiment gave birth to his masterpiece – Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a reflection on embracing the simplicity of life.
This book is a treasure trove of quotes by Henry David Thoreau. Among the most famous ones is this: “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” It’s a call to declutter life and focus on what truly matters. Less noise, more Zen!
But don’t be fooled by his reclusive nature. Thoreau was an activist too. He advocated for civil disobedience as a means to protest unjust laws and government actions. In fact, his powerful essays became a cornerstone for later movements like those led by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
So whether you’re a nature lover or interested in philosophy, you can surely find inspiration in these Henry David Thoreau quotes.
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#1
"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them."
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What was Henry David Thoreau most known for?
Thoreau’s writings found little appreciation during his lifetime. However, his two most noted works gained significant popularity over time. These were: Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), and Civil Disobedience (1849). His writings became classic texts in American literature in the 20th century and inspired several people.
#4
"It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us."
What is Thoreau's most famous poem?
Thoreau’s most famous poem is Walden. It is an account of the time he spent living alone in the woods at Walden Pond, Massachusetts.
It reflects the importance of nature, solitude, and self-reliance. The first lines of this poem are quoted often:
“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.”
#5
"Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground."
#6
"Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George the Fourth and continue the slaves of prejudice?"
What is the Concept of Transcendentalism?
Henry David Thoreau was a transcendentalist. Transcendentalism describes a simple idea: people have knowledge that “transcends”. This means they know more about themselves and the world around them beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch, or feel.
This concept encourages spiritual thinking and trusting your intuition. Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was a famous transcendentalist and a friend of Thoreau. He summed up transcendentalism like this: “What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
#7
"It often happens that a man develops a deeper love and friendship with his pet cat or dog than he does with most of the other humans in his life."
#8
"The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men."
How did Thoreau become a Transcendentalist?
Thoreau was influenced by the poet and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a leading figure of the transcendentalist movement in the 19th century. Thoreau joined the Transcendental Club – a group of writers and thinkers who gathered periodically at Emerson’s house to discuss philosophy.
#9
"I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad."
#10
"It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things."
#11
"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."
#12
"This world is but a canvas to our imagination."
#14
"I would remind my countrymen, that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour."
#15
"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."
#16
"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."
#17
"From the right point of view, every storm and every drop in it is a rainbow."
#18
"We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us!"
#19
"If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things."
#21
"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
#22
"I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."
#24
"I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well."
#26
"How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?"
#28
"The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer."
#29
"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
#30
"Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify."
#31
"Men invite the devil in at every angle and then prate about the garden of Eden and the fall of man."
#33
"We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking."
#35
"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."
#37
"A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."
#38
"In the long run, we only hit what we aim at."
#39
"I am not sure but this Catholic religion would be an admirable one if the priest were quite omitted."
#40
"Man wanted a home, a place for warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections."
#42
"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."
#43
"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."
#44
"The poet has made the best roots in his native soil of any man, and is the hardest to transplant."
#45
"A man is worth most to himself and to others, whether as an observer, or poet, or neighbor, or friend, where he is most himself, most contented and at home."
#46
"If a man do not revive with nature in the spring, how shall he revive when a white-collared priest prays for him?"
#47
"Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
#48
"Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written."
#49
"It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town... he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety."
#50
"All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant."
#51
"Be it life or death, we crave only reality."
#52
"I have never felt lonesome, or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude, but once, and that was a few weeks after I came to the woods, when, for an hour, I doubted if the near neighborhood of man was not essential to a serene and healthy life."
#53
"I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life."
#54
"Bribed with a little sunlight and a few prismatic tints, we bless our Maker, and stave off his wrath with hymns."
#56
"In my short experience of human life I have found that the outward obstacles which stood in my way were not living men but dead institutions."
#58
"In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society."
#60
"It is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire."
#61
"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted."
#62
"This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore."
#63
"Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows that surround it. We need the tonic of wildness."
#64
"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"
#65
"I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust."
#66
"Things do not change; we change."
#67
"All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be."
#68
"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run."
#70
"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."
#71
"I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment."
#73
"I think I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and fields absolutely free from all worldy engagements."
#74
"A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us."
#75
"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."
#76
"I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good."
#77
"O how I laugh when I think of my vague, indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it—for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment."
#78
"No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes: yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience."
#79
"When formerly I was looking about to see what I could do for a living... I thought often and seriously of picking huckleberries; that surely I could do."
#80
"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."
#81
"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations."
#82
"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."
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