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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Life - Page 2

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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.

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.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Peace, Simple
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.88, BookBaby

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
Life, Positive, Simple
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

The future is too soon the past. So make perseverance your excellence and go confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Dream, Perseverance

The great art of life is how to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Art, Soul
Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.31, Heron Dance Press

Sweep away the clutter of things that complicate our lives.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Action, Clutter
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.26, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

We live but a fraction of our lives.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Fractions, Our Lives
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.44, Courier Corporation

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Carpe Diem, Greater
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.417, Penguin

We do not live by justice, but by grace.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Justice, Grace
Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “A Yankee in Canada: With Anti-slavery and Reform Papers”, p.245

The devil finds work for idle hands.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Hands
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden: An Annotated Edition”, p.69, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Success
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.202, Penguin

To be awake is to be alive.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Live In The Moment, Energy
Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.142

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 oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality which we can substitute? We will not be shipwrecked on a vain reality.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Summer, Spring
Walden ch. 18 (1854). Frequently quoted as "marches to the tune of a different drummer."

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

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Beautiful, Book
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.8, Penguin

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.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Believe, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.379, Penguin

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Wise
Walden ch. 2 (1854)

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Success, Inspiration
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.93, BookBaby

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Time
Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden: An Annotated Edition”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Four things to think about. 1. Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. 2. Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred. 3. Keep three chairs in your house. One for solitude, two for friendship, three for society. 4. To preserve your relationship to nature, make your life more moral, more pure, more innocent.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Nature, Thinking

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Success
Walden ch. 1 (1854)

The only wealth is life.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Money, Wealth

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
Life, Running, Time
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.28, Graphic Arts Books

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Insperational
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “The Maine Woods: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume III (of 20)”, p.71, Trajectory Inc

In the production of the necessaries of life Nature is ready enough to assist man.

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Nature, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Cape Cod”, p.133, Trajectory Inc

Is there any such thing as wisdom not applied to life?

Henry David Thoreau
Life, Wisdom
Henry David Thoreau (2007). “My Thoughts Are Murder to the State: Thoreau's Essays on Political Philosophy”, p.172, David M Gross

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature -if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you -know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.

Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational, Life, Sympathy

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