Why should I know Henry David Thoreau?

“A man can suffocate on courtesy.”

“A man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of life getting his living.”

“Be yourself, not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.”

“Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.”

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”

“Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.”

“Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”

“Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin!”

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

“He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.”

“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.”

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”

“I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.”

“I make myself rich by making my wants few.”

“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

“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.
It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or
an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer?”

“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”

“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”

“In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.”

“It is never too late to give up our prejudices.”

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. What are we busy about?”

“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”

“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.”

“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.”

“Men have become the tools of their tools.”

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them.”

“My friend is one... who take me for what I am.”

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”

“One should always be on the trail of one's own deepest nature. For it is the fearless living out of your own essential nature that connects you to the divine.”

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”

“Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.”

“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

“The greatest art is to shape the quality of the day.”

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.”

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.”

“This world is but canvas to our imaginations.”

“We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.”

“We are constantly invited to be what we are.”

“We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.”

“What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.”

“What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

“What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.”

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”