Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. He spent time as a school teacher after attending Harvard College but was dismissed for his refusal to administer corporal punishment. In 1845, wanting to write his first book, he moved to Walden Pond and built his cabin on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It was during his time at Walden that Thoreau was imprisoned briefly for not paying taxes; this experience became the basis for his well-known essay “Civil Disobedience.”
He died of tuberculosis in 1862 at the age of 44.
Henry David Thoreau
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
It is only when we forget our learning that we begin to know.
It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.
Many men go fishing all their lives, not knowing it is not fish they are after.
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
The world is but a canvas to the imagination.
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
When we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.