"All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers."

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More quotes from: Henry David Thoreau

• "A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a ..."
• "A kitten is so flexible that she is almost double; the hind parts are equivalent ..."
• "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to ..."
• "A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we ..."
• "A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay ..."
• "Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something. "
• "All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man. "
• "An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. "
• "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. "
• "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! "
• "As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will ..."
• "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. "
• "Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and ..."
• "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 ..."
• "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish ..."
• "Men are born to succeed, not to fail. "
• "Men have become the tools of their tools. "
• "Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. "
• "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song ..."
• "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 ..."
• "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake. "
• "Politics is the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political ..."
• "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. "
• "Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them ..."
• "Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable ..."
• "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not ..."
• "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 ..."
• "The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works ..."
• "The bluebird carries the sky on his back. "
• "The Brahmins say that in their books there are many predictions of times in which ..."
• "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 ..."
• "The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches ..."
• "The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I ..."
• "The heart is forever inexperienced. "
• "The language of friendship is not words but meanings. "
• "The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns ..."
• "The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must ..."
• "The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do? "
• "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. "
• "The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. "
• "The perception of beauty is a moral test. "
• "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. "
• "The savage in man is never quite eradicated. "
• "The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. "
• "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, ..."
• "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking ..."
• "There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his ..."
• "There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. "
• "There is no remedy for love but to love more. "
• "There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by ..."
• "There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and ..."
• "Things do not change; we change. "
• "This world is but a canvas to our imagination. "
• "Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. "
• "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. "
• "To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit ..."
• "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. "
• "To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle. "
• "To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a ..."
• "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is ..."
• "Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can ..."
• "We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect. "
• "We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches. "
• "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by ..."
• "We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the ..."
• "We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see. "
• "We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes. "
• "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 ..."
• "What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become ..."
• "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? ..."