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"53 Henry David Thoreau Quotes & Sayings

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Born: 12 July 1817. Died: 6 May 1862 | Essayist | Poet | Philosopher |

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Life Good Moral Cheat
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I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Because Came Could Deliberately
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There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.

Anxiety Infinite Leisure Moments
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If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Agent Another Break Government
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Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

Bear Closest Eye Her
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Away Because Companions Different
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What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
Got House Planet Put
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What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Ahead Behind Compared Lies
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It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are... than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Atmosphere Below Better Breathe
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There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

Consumes Fatal Getting Greater
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There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Bring Any Choose Except
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It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.
Determines Fate Himself His
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If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Advances Common Confidently Direction
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The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

Dies Earnest Jest Squirrel
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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.

Air Built Castles Foundations
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It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Look Matters See You
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Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Fails Goodness Investment Never
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A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Afford Alone Man Number
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How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Down How Live Sit
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Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Any Fool Make Mind
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The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Answer Asked Attended Compliment
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Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Cherish Deeply Integral Interest
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Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.
Around Beliefs Live Turn
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Truths and roses have thorns about them.
About Roses Them Thorns
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The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Better Faith Fruit Happiness
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You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Each Eternity Every Find
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I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

Grateful Perpetual Thanksgiving Have
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Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Because Companions Desperate Different
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If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Bald Before Being Citizen
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The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

Consistency Consistent Expediency Lawyer
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Be not simply good - be good for something.
Good Simply Something
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There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Love More Remedy But
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Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

Best Composition Goes Luck
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I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Beware Clothes Enterprises New
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The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

Alone Another Goes Man
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If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Compensation Disappointment Enough Every
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Things do not change; we change.
Change Things Not
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Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

Alive Better Creature Dead
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It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Appears Both Cannot Deep
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Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

Also Good Must Only
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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Confirmed Desperation Lead Lives
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The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

Amount Anything Exchange Life
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Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

Earth Intelligence Leaves Mould
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The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
Back Bluebird Carries His
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Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

After Fish Fishing Knowing
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Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Begin Lost Ourselves Understand
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As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Laws Life Poverty Simpler
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I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Crowded Cushion Myself Pumpkin
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An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Blessing Day Walk Whole
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This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Canvas Imagination Our World
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Henry David Thoreau Quotes & Sayings