Thoreau Quotes: Wisdom and Inspiration from Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. – Thoreau

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. – Thoreau

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. – Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. – Thoreau

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. – Thoreau

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Thoreau

Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder. – Thoreau

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. – Thoreau

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. – Thoreau

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. – Thoreau

The world is but a canvas to our imagination. – Thoreau

Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify, simplify! – Thoreau

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. – Thoreau

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. – Thoreau

It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? – Thoreau

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. – Thoreau

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. – Thoreau

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. – Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. – Thoreau

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. – Thoreau

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. – Thoreau

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. – Thoreau

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. – Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. – Thoreau

There is no remedy for love but to love more. – Thoreau

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. – Thoreau

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. – Thoreau

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. – Thoreau

Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once. – Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstones of our character. – Thoreau

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. – Thoreau

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

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. – Thoreau

The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. – Thoreau

It is not enough to be busy. The question is: What are we busy about? – Thoreau

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Thoreau

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Thoreau

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. – Thoreau

I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. – Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. – Thoreau

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. – Thoreau

The greatest compliment I ever received was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. – Thoreau

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. – Thoreau

The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. – Thoreau

It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? – Thoreau

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. – Thoreau

If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. – Thoreau

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. – Thoreau

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. – Thoreau

As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail. – Thoreau