Henry David Thoreau

Pity the man who has a character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is read more

Pity the man who has a character to support -- it is worse than a large family -- he is silent poor indeed.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.

When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and read more

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favour in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.