Henry David Thoreau Quotes
Henry David Thoreau was a 19th-century American philosopher, essayist, and naturalist, the second major figure of the Transcendentalist movement after Ralph Waldo Emerson, his mentor and friend. His 1854 book Walden, written during the two years he lived in a small cabin on the shore of Walden Pond, is a foundational text of American nature writing and a meditation on simplicity, self-sufficiency, and the relation between the individual and society. The quotes below are attributed to Henry David Thoreau, organized by topic.
Browse Henry David Thoreau by topic
Henry David Thoreau on Freedom
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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.”
pp. 366-67
Henry David Thoreau on God
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“Great God , I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye.”
Prayer", st. 1. The Dial (July 1842) p. 79 -
“Prayer", st. 1. The Dial (July 1842) p. 79”
Great God , I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye.
Henry David Thoreau on Justice
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“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
Civil Disobedience, 1849
Henry David Thoreau on Knowledge
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“I am a parcel of vain strivings tied By a chance bond together, Dangling this way and that, their links Were made so loose and wide, Methinks, For milder weather.”
Sic Vita", st. 1. The Dial (July 1841) p. 81 -
“Sic Vita", st. 1. The Dial (July 1841) p. 81”
I am a parcel of vain strivings tied By a chance bond together, Dangling this way and that, their links Were made so loose and wide, Methinks, For milder weather. -
“Sic Vita", st. 6. The Dial (July 1841) p. 82”
But now I see I was not plucked for naught, And after in life's vase Of glass set while I might survive, But by a kind hand brought Alive To a strange place. -
“The Black Knight", l. 11. The Dial (October 1842) p. 180”
The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me— No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry.
Henry David Thoreau on Life
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“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
p. 10 -
Attributed to Henry David Thoreau:
“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.”
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Attributed to Henry David Thoreau:
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
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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.”
p. 364 | Commonly misquoted, converted to imperative mood, as "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler". -
Attributed to Henry David Thoreau:
“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.”
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“But now I see I was not plucked for naught, And after in life's vase Of glass set while I might survive, But by a kind hand brought Alive To a strange place.”
Sic Vita", st. 6. The Dial (July 1841) p. 82 -
“The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me— No trade upon the street Wears its emblazonry.”
The Black Knight", l. 11. The Dial (October 1842) p. 180
Henry David Thoreau on Nature
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“Natural History of Massachusetts" . The Dial (July 1842) p. 39”
Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.
Henry David Thoreau on Politics
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“That government is best which governs least.”
Civil Disobedience, opening, 1849
Henry David Thoreau on Time
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Attributed to Henry David Thoreau:
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
Henry David Thoreau on Truth
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“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth.”
Natural History of Massachusetts" . The Dial (July 1842) p. 39
Henry David Thoreau on Virtue
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“Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.”
p. 18
Things actually not said by Henry David Thoreau
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Henry David Thoreau but are in fact from someone else. Did Henry David Thoreau say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“Truths and roses have thorns about them.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: This is commonly misattributed because Thoreau wrote it in his journal June 14, 1838, but it was not original. This was a popular aphorism in his day, appearing in several collections of proverbs during his lifetime. Its origin is unknown, but it had appeared in print before his birth. E.g., in Jose
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: First attributed to Thoreau in A year of sunshine: cheerful extracts for every day in the year (Kate Sanborn, 1886) and American literature (Mildred Cabell Watkins, 1894), but there is no known citation to Thoreau's works.
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: No known citation to Thoreau's works. First found, uncredited, in the 1940s in the variant "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to look for it", p. 711, Locomotive Engineers Journal , Volume 76, 1942. Google Books
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Misquotation of a line from Walden cited above, with the addition of a spurious ending. For this and other misattributions, see: The Henry D. Thoreau Mis-Quotation Page
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: According to The Quote Investigator , "the earliest instance of this saying was crafted by the enigmatic "L" for "The Daily Crescent" newspaper in New Orleans [in June 1848]. ... The linkage to Henry David Thoreau is unsupported.
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Did Henry David Thoreau say this? No.
“What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.”
Attributed to Thoreau, in The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose (1995) by Dan Millman, p. xi, and to Ralph Waldo Emerson in Promotion of Pharmaceuticals: Issues, Trends, Options (1993) by Dev S. Pathak, Alan Escovitz, and Suzan Kucukarslan, p. 74, but no occurrence of it prior to the 1990s has been located. (Disputed.)