Looking for the best Henry David Thoreau quotes? Then look no further.
Born on July 12, 1817, Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his masterworks Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and Civil Disobedience, an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
After graduating from Harvard in 1837, Thoreau had the opportunity to meet Ralph Waldo Emerson and become his disciple. He was greatly influenced by Emerson and saw him as a mentor and friend. It was as this time he was exposed to Transcendentalism.
Thoreau’s work and philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Henry David Thoreau was a man who had a lot of inspirational words to offer and there are many famous Henry David Thoreau quotes on life, friendship, government and education out there.
Here, I’ve compiled the best Henry David Thoreau quotes on success. These quotes by Thoreau act as success advice and lessons to help you achieve your goals. Enjoy!
101 Best Henry David Thoreau Quotes
1. “Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.” – Henry David Thoreau
2. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
3. “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
4. “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.” – Henry David Thoreau
5. “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
6. “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
7. “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” – Henry David Thoreau
8. “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” – Henry David Thoreau
9. “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” – Henry David Thoreau
10. “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” – Henry David Thoreau
11. “To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” – Henry David Thoreau
12. “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” – Henry David Thoreau
13. “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” – Henry David Thoreau
14. “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau
15. “Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” – Henry David Thoreau
16. “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.” – Henry David Thoreau
17. “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” – Henry David Thoreau
18. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
19. “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” – Henry David Thoreau
20. “In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.” – Henry David Thoreau
21. “Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.” – Henry David Thoreau
22. “It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.” – Henry David Thoreau
23. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” – Henry David Thoreau
24. “Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau
25. “Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau
26. “Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.” – Henry David Thoreau
27. “Men are born to succeed, not to fail.” – Henry David Thoreau
28. “The universe is wider than our views of it.” – Henry David Thoreau
29. “There is no remedy for love but to love more.” – Henry David Thoreau
30. “What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.” – Henry David Thoreau
31. “That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.” – Henry David Thoreau
32. “It is never too late to give up our prejudices.” – Henry David Thoreau
33. “Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” – Henry David Thoreau
34. “Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.” – Henry David Thoreau
35. “It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.” – Henry David Thoreau
36. “Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.” – Henry David Thoreau
37. “Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.” – Henry David Thoreau
38. “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” – Henry David Thoreau
39. “The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?” – Henry David Thoreau
40. “Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” – Henry David Thoreau
41. “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
42. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau
43. “Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – Henry David Thoreau
44. “Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.” – Henry David Thoreau
45. “The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.” – Henry David Thoreau
46. “Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.” – Henry David Thoreau
47. “What is once well done is done forever.” – Henry David Thoreau
48. “Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” – Henry David Thoreau
49. “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” – Henry David Thoreau
50. “It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.” – Henry David Thoreau
51. “To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.” – Henry David Thoreau
52. “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
53. “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” – Henry David Thoreau
54. “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.” – Henry David Thoreau
55. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau
56. “When it comes time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.” – Henry David Thoreau
57. “Life isn’t about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
58. “I make myself rich by making my wants few.” – Henry David Thoreau
59. “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” – Henry David Thoreau
60. “It’s not worth our while to let our imperfections disturb us always.” – Henry David Thoreau
61. “Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.” – Henry David Thoreau
62. “My greatest skill in life has been to want but little.” – Henry David Thoreau
63. “You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.” – Henry David Thoreau
64. “The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.” – Henry David Thoreau
65. “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
66. “We are constantly invited to be who we are.” – Henry David Thoreau
67. “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.” – Henry David Thoreau
68. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.” – Henry David Thoreau
69. “Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.” – Henry David Thoreau
70. “To be awake is to be completely alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake.” – Henry David Thoreau
71. “Be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” – Henry David Thoreau
72. “Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!” – Henry David Thoreau
73. “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” – Henry David Thoreau
74. “Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.” – Henry David Thoreau
75. “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.” – Henry David Thoreau
76. “If you want to be happy, be!” – Henry David Thoreau
77. “All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.” – Henry David Thoreau
78. “I do not know how to distinguish between waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?” – Henry David Thoreau
79. “In the long run men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.” – Henry David Thoreau
80. “Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be.” – Henry David Thoreau
81. “It’s the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau
82. “Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.” – Henry David Thoreau
83. “What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.” – Henry David Thoreau
84. “Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.” – Henry David Thoreau
85. “To have made even one person’s life a little better, that is to succeed.” – Henry David Thoreau
86. “Let nothing come between you and the light.” – Henry David Thoreau
87. “There is no beginning too small.” – Henry David Thoreau
88. “Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.” – Henry David Thoreau
89. “Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.” – Henry David Thoreau
90. “The soul grows by subtraction, not addition.” – Henry David Thoreau
91. “The secret of achievement is to hold a picture of a successful outcome in mind.” – Henry David Thoreau
92. “Kindness to children, love for children, goodness to children – these are the only investments that never fail.” – Henry David Thoreau
93. “Do not despair of your life. You have force enough to overcome your obstacles.” – Henry David Thoreau
94. “I have no time to be in a hurry.” – Henry David Thoreau
95. “All things in this world must be seen with youthful, hopeful eyes.” – Henry David Thoreau
96. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake.” – Henry David Thoreau
97. “The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.” – Henry David Thoreau
98. “He who owns little is little owned.” – Henry David Thoreau
99. “The biggest happiness is when at the end of the year you feel better than at the beginning.” – Henry David Thoreau
100. “An ordinary man will work every day for a year at shoveling dirt to support his body, or a family of bodies; but he is an extraordinary man who will work a whole day in a year for the support of his soul. Even the priests, men of God, so called, for the most part confess that they work for the support of the body.” – Henry David Thoreau
101. “One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.” – Henry David Thoreau
Did you find these quotes by Henry David Thoreau inspiring?
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