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.
#61
"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted."
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#62
"This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore."
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#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."
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#64
"Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"
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#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."
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#66
"Things do not change; we change."
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#67
"All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be."
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#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."
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#69
"Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity."
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#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."
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#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."
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#72
"The fruit a thinker bears is sentences — statements or opinions."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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#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."
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