I was more independent than any farmer in Concord,
by Henry David Thoreau

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord,
for I was not anchored to a house or farm,
but could follow the bent of my genius,
which is a very crooked one, every moment.
- Henry David Thoreau

Related topics: Self Purpose

There is danger that we lose sight of
what our friend is absolutely,
while considering what she is to us alone.
- Henry David Thoreau

Friends... they cherish one another's hopes.
They are kind to one another's dreams.
- 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

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Thank You,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
- Henry David Thoreau

The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.
It is an intelligence above language.
- Henry David Thoreau

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.
- Henry David Thoreau

Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through,
and you could go in the back way.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

Ignorance and bungling with love
are better than wisdom and skill without.
- Henry David Thoreau

Every generation laughs at the old fashions,
but follows religiously the new.
- Henry David Thoreau

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
- Henry David Thoreau

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
- Henry David Thoreau

May we so love as never to have occasion
to repent of our love!
- Henry David Thoreau

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?
- Henry David Thoreau

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself,
than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
- Henry David Thoreau

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.
- Henry David Thoreau

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
- Henry David Thoreau

Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.
- Henry David Thoreau

What is called genius is the
abundance of life and health.
- Henry David Thoreau

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl:
it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.
- Henry David Thoreau

Not until we are lost
do we begin to understand ourselves.
- Henry David Thoreau

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.
I have no wealth to bestow on him.
If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward.
Is not friendship divine in this?
- Henry David Thoreau

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.
- 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

How could youths better learn to live
than by at once trying the experiment of living?
- Henry David Thoreau

The heart is forever inexperienced.
- 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

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil
to one who is striking at the root.
- Henry David Thoreau

The youth gets together his materials
to build a bridge to the moon,
or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth,
and, at length, the middle-aged man
concludes to build a woodshed with them.
- Henry David Thoreau

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.
- Henry David Thoreau

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.
- Henry David Thoreau

If misery loves company, misery has company enough.
- Henry David Thoreau

To a philosopher all news,
as it is called, is gossip,
and they who edit and read it
are old women over their tea.
- Henry David Thoreau

Those whom we can love, we can hate;
to others we are indifferent.
- Henry David Thoreau

In human intercourse the tragedy begins,
not when there is misunderstanding about words,
but when silence is not understood.
- Henry David Thoreau

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
- Henry David Thoreau

Make the most of your regrets;
never smother your sorrow,
but tend and cherish it till it comes to have
a separate and integral interest.
To regret deeply is to live afresh.
- Henry David Thoreau

It is not desirable to cultivate
a respect for the law,
so much as for the right.
- Henry David Thoreau

Every man casts a shadow;
not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit.
This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will,
it falls opposite to the sun;
short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?
- Henry David Thoreau

If one advances confidently
in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live
the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with success
unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
- Henry David Thoreau

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.
- 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

Every creature is better alive than dead,
men and moose and pine trees,
and he who understands it aright
will rather preserve its life than destroy it.
- 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

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
- Henry David Thoreau

Where there is an observatory and a telescope,
we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once.
- Henry David Thoreau

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
- 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

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
- Henry David Thoreau

We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
- Henry David Thoreau

Could a greater miracle take place
than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?
- Henry David Thoreau

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life
are not only not indispensable,
but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
- Henry David Thoreau

Do not be too moral.
You may cheat yourself out of much life.
So aim above morality.
Be not simply good;
be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau

The universe is wider than our views of it.
- Henry David Thoreau

A man's interest in a single bluebird
is worth more than a complete but dry list
of the fauna and flora of a town.
- Henry David Thoreau

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

We shall see but a little way if
we require to understand what we see.
- 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

Aim above morality.
Be not simply good,
be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
- Henry David Thoreau

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
- Henry David Thoreau

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious
as to have friends at a distance;
they make the latitudes and the longitudes.
- Henry David Thoreau

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.
- Henry David Thoreau

In wilderness is the preservation of the world.
- Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau

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Friendship Quotes

Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"The Philosopher of Happiness" - is the author of 100 Secrets for Living a Life You Love, co-author of Simply An Inspired Life, speaker, personal coach, and creator of the popular Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote free email.>

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord,by Henry David Thoreau

Friendship Quotes

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord,
by Henry David Thoreau