Henry David Thoreau quotes | Thousands Of Quotes

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I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

Henry David Thoreau

Company

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.

I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

Henry David Thoreau

Sleep

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

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

Henry David Thoreau

Thought

Compliment

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

Henry David Thoreau

Tension

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Henry David Thoreau

Life

Will

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Henry David Thoreau

Sky

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

Henry David Thoreau

Persuasion

That government is best which governs least.