Henry David Thoreau

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

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately."

"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."

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

"Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances."

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams."

"I love a broad margin to my life."

"Nature never wears the same expression twice."

"The only wealth is life."

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

"I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."

"Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion."

"The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation."

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, he will meet with success."

"I hear America singing."

"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things."

"Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection."

"Morning brings back the heroic ages."

"There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted."

"The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

"I am convinced that to maintain oneself on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime."

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

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, that actually has heart and meaning."

"The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of livelihood by the same method that the lawyer uses to get rich."

"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."

"I have never felt lonesome, or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude."

"The intellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way into the secret of things."

"In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty."

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion."