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.”

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

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that 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.”

“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.”

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the
best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. 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. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”

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

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

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.”

“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find
ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

“Any fool can make a rule

And any fool will mind it.”

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest
accomplishment.”

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and
absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall
begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have
made me.”

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to

have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”

“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings
have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”

“It is not the length of life, but the depth.”

“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone
to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your
critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same
courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win
them.”

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”