"I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness."

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More quotes from: Henry David Thoreau

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• "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 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. "
• "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 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? ..."