Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Green Thoreau: America's First Environmentalist on Technology, Possessions, Livelihood, and More”, p.72, New World Library

Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

Henry David Thoreau

Life, Men, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.74, Heron Dance Press

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

Autumn, Light, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (1892). “Autumn: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.

Henry David Thoreau

Simple, Two, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.144

The very austerity of the Brahmans is tempting to the devotional soul, as a more refined and nobler luxury. Wants so easily and gracefully satisfied seem like a more refined pleasure. Their conception of creation is peaceful as a dream.

Henry David Thoreau

Dream, Luxury, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.547, Simon and Schuster

Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on distant andfluctuating markets for them. Yet so far are we from simplicity and independence that, in Concord, fresh and sweet meal is rarely sold in the shops, and hominy and corn in a still coarser form are hardly used by any.

Henry David Thoreau

Sweet, Land, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.46, Xist Publishing

I love a life whose plot is simple.

Henry David Thoreau

Simple, Simplicity, Plot

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.69, Delphi Classics

Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse.

Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity, Thank God, Furniture

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.48, Graphic Arts Books

As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.

Henry David Thoreau

Practice, Feet, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.204, Yale University Press

The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau

Ignorance, Simplicity, Savages

Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.113, David M Gross

To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives? - and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared to live more worthily and profitably?

Henry David Thoreau

Simple, Simplicity, Use

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.369, Penguin

My themes will not be far-fetched. I will tell of homely every-day phenomena and adventures.

Henry David Thoreau

Adventure, Simplicity, Scrapbooking

Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.168, Courier Corporation

Pray, for what do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuviæ; at last to go from this world to another newly furnished, and leave this to be burned?

Henry David Thoreau

Moving, Simplicity, World

Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Henry David Thoreau: Walden”, p.64, Library of America

A man may travel fast enough and earn his living on the road.

Henry David Thoreau

Travel, Men, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.665, Simon and Schuster

But there are spirits of a yet more liberal culture, to whom no simplicity is barren. There are not only stately pines, but fragile flowers, like the orchises, commonly described as too delicate for cultivation, which derive their nutriment from the crudest mass of peat. These remind us, that, not only for strength, but for beauty, the poet must, from time to time, travel the logger's path and the Indian's trail, to drink at some new and more bracing fountain of the Muses, far in the recesses of the wilderness.

Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational, Flower, Simplicity

Henry David Thoreau (1873). “The Maine Woods”, p.160