221 Quotes By Henry David Thoreau


Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Henry David Thoreau on time

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.
Henry David Thoreau on time

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.
Henry David Thoreau on time

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau on time

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
Henry David Thoreau on time

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

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.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
Henry David Thoreau on truth

What is human warfare but just this an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.
Henry David Thoreau on war

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Henry David Thoreau on wisdom

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau on wisdom

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.
Henry David Thoreau on wisdom

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.
Henry David Thoreau on wisdom

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.
Henry David Thoreau on women

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
Henry David Thoreau on work

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Henry David Thoreau on work