Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.
He who cannot read is worse than deaf and blind, is yet but half alive, is still-born.
Winter is the time for study, you know, and the colder it is the more studious we are.
It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live.
Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.
I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.
All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.
The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones.
How many things are now at loose ends! Who knows which way the wind will blow tomorrow?
Can there be any greater reproach than an idle learning? Learn to split wood, at least.
It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth, farther from heaven these days.
Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident. It is as common as life.
Our science, so called, is always more barren and mixed with error than our sympathies.
Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.
It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady.
be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.
The man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages.
When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere.
The movements of the eyes express the perpetual and unconscious courtesy of the parties.
The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.
I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.
We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bone.
I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.
True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.
Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins.
One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Nature would not appear so rich, the profusion so rich, if we knew a use for everything.
I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls.
When a noble deed is done, who is likely to appreciate it? They who are noble themselves.
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
The great art of life is how to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body.
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.
Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.
A bore is someone who takes away my solitude and doesn't give me companionship in return.
Men are probably nearer the essential truth in their superstitions than in their science.
I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.
In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to.
The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.
What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary?
When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip.
Furniture! Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse.
He may travel who can subsist on the wild fruits and game of the most cultivated country.
Time & Co. are, after all, the only quite honest and trustworthy publishers that we know.
Asked whether or not he believed in an afterlife, Thoreau quipped, "One world at a time."
I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.