Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau- "We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. "


I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Henry David Thoreau

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

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

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Henry David Thoreau

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

Henry David Thoreau

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Henry David Thoreau

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Henry David Thoreau

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Henry David Thoreau

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Henry David Thoreau

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Henry David Thoreau

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Henry David Thoreau

You cannot dream yourself into a character: you must hammer and forge yourself into one.

Henry David Thoreau

What is once well done is done forever.

Henry David Thoreau

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Henry David Thoreau

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Henry David Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

Henry David Thoreau

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

Henry David Thoreau

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Henry David Thoreau

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

Henry David Thoreau

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Henry David Thoreau

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

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 foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Henry David Thoreau

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

Henry David Thoreau

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau

Things do not change; we change.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

Henry David Thoreau

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Henry David Thoreau

I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Henry David Thoreau

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Henry David Thoreau

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

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

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

Henry David Thoreau

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.

Henry David Thoreau

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Henry David Thoreau

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau

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.

Henry David Thoreau

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

Henry David Thoreau

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

Henry David Thoreau