Quotes

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.
Reinhold Niebuhr



All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
Baruch Spinoza


Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
- Democritus


Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.
- Bill Keane

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

― Henry David Thoreau

“One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

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

― Henry David Thoreau

“This world is but a canvas for our imagination.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

 

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“However mean your life is, meet and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its doors as early in the spring. Cultivate property like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts… Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods

 

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

 

“My greatest skill in life has been to want but little” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“I have an immense appetite for solitude, like an infant for sleep, and if I don't get enough for this year, I shall cry all the next. ” 

― Henry David Thoreau

 

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Men are born to succeed, not to fail.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in it's gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“Let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you imagined.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“The path of least resistance leads to crooked rivers and crooked men.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

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

― Henry David Thoreau

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“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. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. ” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual…O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

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

― Henry David Thoreau

“Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself. 

So live the life you imagined.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

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

― Henry David Thoreau

“All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

 

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods

“A man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of life getting his living.” 

― Henry David Thoreau

“The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden