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. All fables, indeed, have their morals; but the innocent enjoy the story. Let nothing come between you and the light. Respect men and brothers only. When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God,
Henry David Thoreau
Related Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply g... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply g... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Vice...Virtue...It's not good to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much life. Aim above mo... , FROM THE MOVIE "HAROLD & MAUDE" Sow the seeds of hard work and you will reap the fruits of success. Find something to do, do it with... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I may not be beautiful, I may not be tall, I may have no legs, And be hairy and all.<... ANTHONY T. HINCKS Now that you’re old, cut yourself some slack, would you? Let yourself off the hook. LIONEL FISHER I think of you often and make no outward show, But what it means to lose you, no one will ... ANON. Don't be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even ... MARY OLIVER A Prayer Refuse to fall down If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay... CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTéS You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles thro... MARY OLIVER -Desiderata- Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may... MAX EHRMANN For the person who tortured me in jail. For the person who tortured the many of my followers a... AHMAD MOFTIZADEH Harry’s letter to his daughter: If I could give you just one thing, I’d want it to be... HARRY BROWNE How do you feel when you want to stand and you see yourself on the floor? Sometimes what God wi... PATIENCE JOHNSON Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It's not easy, but do it anyway It's not easy to love, when you get resentment in re... HENNA SOHAIL It's not easy, but do it anyway It's not easy to love, when you get resentment in re... HENNA SOHAIL When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And When his win... KAHLIL GIBRAN Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no re... JOHN LENNON You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the w... KAHLIL GIBRAN 1. Accept everything just the way it is. 2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake. 3. Do n... MIYAMOTO MUSASHI The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken SARAH KAY Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supp... CAITLYN SIEHL Thinking, not for the first time, that life should come with a trapdoor. Just a little exit hatch yo... MICHELE JAFFE Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side FRED E. WEATHERLY This is your life. Do what you want and do it often. If you don't like something, change it. <... HOLSTEE MANIFESTO Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years anyone may liv... KING SOLOMON SON OF DAVID We were talking about the space between us all And the people who hide themselves behind a wall... GEORGE HARRISON Thus Epicurus also, when he designs to destroy the natural fellowship of mankind, at the same time m... EPICTETUS You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, If you do not lis... MARTHA MEDEIROS People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. I... MOTHER TERESA Remember The Dream You have a choice Your heart will know You gotta look back s... JAMES INGRAM Promise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. T... CHRISTIAN D. LARSON You have to be transparent so you no longer cast a shadow but instead let the light pass... KAMAND KOJOURI To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in ev... FERNANDO PESSOA This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can w... ANON. When your afraid of something you hide behind a mask. It might be to protect yourself, KRIS HARTE Our bodies knock and we pretend like we can't hear They knock to tell us to ... MALEBO SEPHODI I wish in the city of your heart you would let me be the street where you walk when you ar... ROBLEY WILSON You may compare yourself to others, and feel insecure about your own worthiness. Don’t ... JENNIFER SODINI
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and se... KENT M. KEITH Sending out the Disciples Luke 10 1: AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD APPOINTED O... SWAMI DHYAN GITEN May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are me... TERESA OF ÁVILA (You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel as... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Are you the owner of this car?" A cop has something you don't have, something you gave him earlier.<... DOUGLAS WOOLF Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If ... RUDYARD KIPLING When clouds of pain loom in the sky When a shadow of sadness flickers by When a tear finds... JAVED AKHTAR When you ask God for a gift, Be thankful if he sends, Not diamonds, pearls or riches, HELEN STEINER RICE There will always be those who say you are too young and delicate to make anything happen ... CLEMENTINE VON RADICS May you find serenity and tranquility in a worl... SANDRA STURTZ HAUSS I love you so much I want to share you with yourself. I know you do not insist KAMAND KOJOURI Instructions for freedom": 1. Life's metaphors are God's instructions. 2. You have just cl... ELIZABETH GILBERT If an eagle gives you a feather, keep it safe. Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that NEIL GAIMAN When you have come to the edge of all the light you have And step into the darkness of the unk... RICHARD BACH When you have come to the edge of all the light you have And step into the darkness of the unkn... RICHARD BACH Dear God, I prayed, all unafraid (as we're inclined to do), I do not need a handsome man RUTH BELL GRAHAM Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself... KAHLIL GIBRAN when you are broken and he has left you do not question whether you were enough<... RUPI KAUR Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, ... DYLAN THOMAS Oh, oh, you will be sorry for that word! Give back my book and take my kiss instead. Was it m... EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY Forget about raping her, do not even force her, verbally or even emotionally. I bet you w... HONEYA be good to yourself you're the only you you'll ever get R.H. SIN Dear Fellow Human Being, You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed! Te... JASZ GILL Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rag... DYLAN THOMAS We met at a cross-roads in life, But we were going different directions. We were part of e... MARGO T. ROSE DON'T BE SO PREPARED FOR THE BATTLE, TO THE POINT YOU FIND YOURSELF UNPREPARED FOR THE VICTORY!... QWANA REYNOLDS-FRASIER The moment when you realize no one understands, no one ever did, no one ever will. You were alo... SANHITA BARUAH Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track t... JOSEPH CAMPBELL Well, to tell you the truth, I've thought of it often and often before, but he's such devilish good ... ANNE BRONTë Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet, When I share my later science, sitti... SARAH WILLIAMS when you walk, you look like you’re trying to disappear. your back is gonna be fucked up. CAITLYN SIEHL If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If y... RUDYARD KIPLING FORBIDDEN Pain without learning is forbidden, waking up one day not knowing what to do, JOSé N. HARRIS And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out o... DR. SEUSS Darling, You asked me to write you a letter, so I am writing you a letter. I do not know why I ... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Your children are not your children. They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. ... KAHLIL GIBRAN Do not shed tears when I have gone but smile instead because I have lived.
Do not shut your eye... DAVID HARKINS You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself an... DR. SEUSS She threw up her hands. "All right. Why not?" Why not?" Sure." H... SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS The day will come When my body no longer exists But in the lines of this poem I will ... SAPARDI DJOKO DAMONO i do not want to have you to fill the empty parts of me i want to be full on my own <... RUPI KAUR A Woman's Question Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing Ever made by t... JOSHUA HARRIS Do not hold your breath for anyone, Do not wish your lungs to be still, It may delay the c... ERIN HANSON Dear Fellow Human Being, You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed! Te... JASZ GILL To know the way, we go the way, we do the way. The way we do, the things we do... BENJAMIN HOFF Let your heart be at peace. Watch the turmoil of beings but contemplate their return. ZHUANGZI You are not your pain. You are not your choices, either good or bad. You are not your body... CATHERINE CARRIGAN When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, ... ANON. (fairy tale). i wanna tell you a joke but it will be like the frog finds the princess ZELDA GIN Because like the depths of the ocean that calls you home, you will never be easy. But dar... JEANETTE LEBLANC The Charcoal Sky Sometimes you go to the wrong place, but the right way comes and finds y... MARKUS ZUSAK My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments; For l... ANONYMOUS Glossa Time goes by, time comes along, All is old and all is new; What is righ... MIHAI EMINESCU Sermon of the Mounts Matthew 5 AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES, HE WENT UP INTO THE ... SWAMI DHYAN GITEN Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
More Henry David Thoreau
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibil... HENRY DAVID THOREAU In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact! HENRY DAVID THOREAU God reigns when we take a liberal view, when a liberal view is presented to us. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man. HENRY DAVID THOREAU All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any noblen... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Simplify, simplify. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To be awake is to be alive. HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? HENRY DAVID THOREAU Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The perception of beauty is a moral test. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the worl... HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is once well done is done forever. HENRY DAVID THOREAU In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when si... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. 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 That government is best which governs least. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man doe... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Be not simply good - be good for something. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. HENRY DAVID THOREAU What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women o... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place exce... HENRY DAVID THOREAU While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inh... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live the life you've dreamed. HENRY DAVID THOREAU As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Goodness is the only investment that never fails. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Truths and roses have thorns about them. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The language of friendship is not words but meanings. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The savage in man is never quite eradicated. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no remedy for love than to love more. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I heartily accept the motto,That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your wo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They ar... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the super... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be l... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If I shall sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I'm sure that, fo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet ou... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and f... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The bluebird carries the sky on his back. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The world is but a canvas to our imagination. HENRY DAVID THOREAU This world is but a canvas to our imaginations. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversa... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are so... HENRY DAVID THOREAU This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it g... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna an... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for law, so much as a respect for right. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injust... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey. We may study the l... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The pleasure we feel in music springs from the obedience which is in it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The knowledge of an unlearned man is living and luxuriant like a forest, but covered with mosses and... HENRY DAVID THOREAU In the long run, we only hit what we aim at. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and wort... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my n... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond th... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, or thoughts are affection; and am sensible ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, becaus... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech... HENRY DAVID THOREAU You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and wat... HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual ph... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority. HENRY DAVID THOREAU In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU You cannot kill time without injuring eternity. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man thinks as well through his legs and arms as this brain. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Associate reverently, as much as you can, with your loftiest thoughts. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How can they expect a harvest of thought who have not had the seed time of character. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade... HENRY DAVID THOREAU As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the sou... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul. HENRY DAVID THOREAU That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more m... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is mo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How earthy old people become --moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no for... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who... HENRY DAVID THOREAU We have not so good a right to hate any as our Friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Men have become the tools of their trade. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his livin... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It takes two to speak truth -- one to speak, and another to hear. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do? HENRY DAVID THOREAU You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Men are born to succeed, not to fail. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; suc... HENRY DAVID THOREAU How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, p... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must lay it down and commence living on its h... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The only wealth is life. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. HENRY DAVID THOREAU How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? HENRY DAVID THOREAU What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowled... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine,... HENRY DAVID THOREAU In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I have lived some thirty-odd years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valu... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been rid... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Poetry implies the whole truth, philosophy expresses only a particle of it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Pity the man who has a character to support --it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor i... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We falsely attribute to men a determined character -- putting together all their yesterdays -- and a... HENRY DAVID THOREAU If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated? HENRY DAVID THOREAU Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it pea... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Seve... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Fame is not just. She never finely or discriminatingly praises, but coarsely hurrahs. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness. HENRY DAVID THOREAU We must have infinite faith in each other. If we have not, we must never let it leak out that we h... HENRY DAVID THOREAU It's not enough to be busy. The question is: What are we busy about? HENRY DAVID THOREAU People die of fright and live of confidence. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their l... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The words which express our faith and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is only when we forget out learning that we begin to know. HENRY DAVID THOREAU What does education often do? It makes a straight cut ditch of a free meandering brook. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If you give money, spend yourself with it. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. HENRY DAVID THOREAU If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free... HENRY DAVID THOREAU I was once reproved by a minister who was driving a poor beast to some meeting-house horse-sheds amo... HENRY DAVID THOREAU You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fool... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. HENRY DAVID THOREAU There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I would not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought, and attended to my ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate pov... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. HENRY DAVID THOREAU I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU The question is not what you look at, but what you see. HENRY DAVID THOREAU However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any preceden... HENRY DAVID THOREAU When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams. HENRY DAVID THOREAU It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the t... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Life in us is like the water in a river. HENRY DAVID THOREAU Of what significance are the things you can forget. HENRY DAVID THOREAU The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed. HENRY DAVID THOREAU To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women ov... HENRY DAVID THOREAU We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but ... HENRY DAVID THOREAU