"A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars."

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More quotes from: Henry David Thoreau

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• "Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. "
• "All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, ..."
• "All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man. "
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• "As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single ..."
• "As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I ..."
• "As if we could kill time without injuring eternity! "
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• "Be not simply good - be good for something. "
• "Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. "
• "Being is the great explainer. "
• "Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes. "
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• "Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. "
• "Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim ..."
• "Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does ..."
• "Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your ..."
• "Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where ..."
• "Dreams are the touchstones of our character. "
• "Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he ..."
• "Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. "
• "Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not ..."
• "For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only ..."
• "Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams. "
• "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. "
• "Goodness is the only investment that never fails. "
• "Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. "
• "How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of ..."
• "How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, ..."
• "How earthy old people become - moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the ..."
• "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading ..."
• "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up ..."
• "However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and ..."
• "I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism ..."
• "I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the ..."
• "I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment ..."
• "I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when ..."
• "I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and ..."
• "I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for ..."
• "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate ..."
• "I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as ..."
• "I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. "
• "I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was ..."
• "I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep ..."
• "I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new ..."
• "I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ..."
• "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the ..."
• "I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be ..."
• "If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated? "
• "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he ..."
• "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a ..."

• "If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, ..."
• "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with ..."
• "If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag ..."
• "If misery loves company, misery has company enough. "
• "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the ..."
• "If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to ..."
• "If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. "
• "If you give money, spend yourself with it. "
• "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that ..."
• "If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe ..."
• "In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when ..."
• "In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better ..."
• "It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both ..."
• "It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. "
• "It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they ..."
• "It is never too late to give up our prejudices. "
• "It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for ..."
• "It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What ..."
• "It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all. "
• "It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being ..."
• "It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear. "
• "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. "
• "Law never made men a whit more just. "
• "Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. "
• "Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it ..."
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• "Men are born to succeed, not to fail. "
• "Men have become the tools of their tools. "
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• "Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only ..."
• "Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes ..."
• "Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with ..."
• "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. "
• "Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something. "
• "Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. "
• "Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can ..."
• "Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they ..."
• "Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the ..."
• "Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ..."
• "Only that day dawns to which we are awake. "
• "Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by ..."
• "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. ..."
• "Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify. "
• "Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show ..."
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• "Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and ..."
• "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. "
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• "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. "
• "Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. "
• "That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest. "

• "Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one ..."
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• "The bluebird carries the sky on his back. "
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• "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which ..."
• "The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of ..."
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• "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking ..."
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• "There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. "
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• "What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. "
• "What is called genius is the abundance of life and health. "
• "What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God ..."
• "What is once well done is done forever. "
• "What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to ..."
• "What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to ..."
• "What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old ..."
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• "What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to ..."
• "When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. ..."
• "Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? ..."