This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Henry David Thoreau Quotes

1. 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.

2. An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

3. As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

4. As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

5. Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

6. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

7. Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

8. Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.

9. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

10. Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

11. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

12. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

13. If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

14. Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

15. In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

16. 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.

17. It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

18. It is what a man thinks of himself that really determines his fate.

19. It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

20. Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

21. Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

22. Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

23. None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

24. Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

25. Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

26. Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

27. Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

28. Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

29. 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.

30. The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

31. There is no remedy for love but to love more.

32. 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.

33. Truths and roses have thorns about them.

34. We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

35. What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

36. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

37. He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

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