Henry David 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.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

Being is the great explainer.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

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.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.

As for doing good that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.

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.

Be not simply good - be good for something.

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

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.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us.

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

I had three chairs in my house one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.