Henry David Thoreau 17

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (7 September, 1851) 

Henry David Thoreau 16

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (19 August, 1851) 

Henry David Thoreau 15

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

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (1847) 

Henry David Thoreau 14

And the cost of a thing, it will be remembered as the amount of life it requires to be exchanged for it. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (6 December, 1845) 

Henry David Thoreau 13

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense. Repentance and sorrow can only be displaced by something better, which is as free and original as if they had not been. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 January, 1842) 

Henry David Thoreau 12

We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (6 January, 1842) 

Henry David Thoreau 11

We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 April, 1841) 

IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818) 

Henry David Thoreau 10

Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (10 March, 1841) 

Henry David Thoreau 9

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. This may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (6 July, 1840) 

IMAGE: Edvard Munch, Summer Night by the Beach (1903) 

Henry David Thoreau 8

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (28 February, 1840) 

IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Ulrich von Hutten's Grave (c. 1824) 

Henry David Thoreau 7

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (22 June, 1839) 

IMAGE: Raphael, Self-Portrait with a Friend (1519) 

Henry David Thoreau 6

Truth, Goodness, Beauty—those celestial thrins,
Continually are born; e'en now the Universe,
With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,
Its joy confesses at their recent birth. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (14 June, 1838) 

IMAGE: Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night (1889) 

Henry David Thoreau 5

Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. 

They learn to make houses; but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes. 

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?—if you cannot tolerate the planet that it is on? Grade the ground first. 

If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him . . . he will be surrounded by grandeur. 

He is in the condition of a healthy and hungry man, who says to himself—how sweet this crust is! 

—Henry David Thoreau, in a letter to Harrison Blake (20 May, 1860) 

Henry David Thoreau 4

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about? 

—Henry David Thoreau, in a letter to Harrison Blake (16 November, 1857)

Henry David Thoreau 3

The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls—the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts 

IMAGE: William Powell Frith, Poverty and Wealth (1888) 

Henry David Thoreau 2

The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. 

—from Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts 

Henry David Thoreau 1

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man? 

—Henry David Thoreau, in a letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson (8 June, 1843)