Henry David Thoreau Quotes

[SoothedByRain]

“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.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” (Henry David 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.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“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)

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. ” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. what a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“There is no remedy for love, but to love more.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“However mean your life is, meet it and live it.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“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)

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” (Henry David Thoreau)

I copied and pasted from the link below.

https://academyofideas.com/2013/12/henry-david-thoreau-quotes/

[RichardY]

Fairly sure pragmatism is Evil, or at least undesirable. Although seductive.

“Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” (Henry David Thoreau) Sounds, like Keith Ledger's Joker, from "The Dark Knight". Although do not drink poison, and then drinking alcohol, or Arsenic maybe a good rule. 

Listened to "Walden" a while a go, I think Thoreau makes a few good points. The demand side of the goods produced by slavery I think is under addressed.

[Bill W]

Love all these quotes. Good thread. Especially the original post.