Henry David Thoreau

I am a parcel of vain strivings tied by a chance bond together.

Henry David Thoreau

I am convinced that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while others have not enough.

Henry David Thoreau

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

Henry David Thoreau

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man’s most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

Henry David Thoreau

I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.

Henry David Thoreau

I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn grows.

Henry David Thoreau

I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.

Henry David Thoreau

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.

Henry David Thoreau

I cannot read a single word of the Hindoos without being elevated.

Henry David Thoreau

I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite.

Henry David Thoreau