Top 10 Henry David Thoreau Quotes

I was looking at my commonplace book and was again struck by the eloquence of Henry David Thoreau. Here are some of my favorite Thoreau quotes, most of them from Walden:

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

…to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self in this earth is not a hardship, but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.

The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life.

The adventurous student will always study the classics…For what are the classics but noblest recorded thoughts of man. They are the only oracles which are not decayed.

Books must be read as reservedly and deliberately as they were written.

A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips;–not represented on canvas or marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.

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

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.