Henry David Thoreau

"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."

"The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us."

"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself."

"Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations."

"For every walk abroad is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels."

"I should not obey instinct. Besides, every man is tasked with all of the world, as I am."

"When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men are not yet born."

"It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?"

"We live meanly, like ants; but the moment a man begins to cherish higher thoughts, he becomes instantly nobler and greater."

"The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake."

"In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time and notch it on my stick too."

"Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with the bulk of mankind."

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book."

"The poet, he hath put his lips to the infinite and drunk out rapture."

"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."

"One world at a time."

"Dreams are the touchstones of our characters."

"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

"The great majority of us are not looking for the truth; we're looking for a story that we prefer to any truth."

"A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper."

"How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened."

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."

"I am convinced that to maintain oneself on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely."

"Many a man looks as worthy of suspicion as a hen that has been brooding a cuckoo's egg and is ready to fight all comers in defense of her treasure of a nest."

"No man ever followed his genius and lost."

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

"I came into the world not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad."

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