Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist,  he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Be not simply good – be good for something.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
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.
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.