57 Henry David Thoreau Quotes To Be Happy With Your Life

Henry David Thoreau Quotes – Not like another artist who had a gloomy childhood, Henry David Thoreau comes from a peaceful and happy family.

His father is managing a pencil factory then his mother is renting a half of their house to dormitory and taking care of children.

Henry David Thoreau is a third child from four siblings. He lives in the peaceful village named Concord.

After that, Henry David Thoreau continues his study in Harvard College with a little help from his brother sister.

During his time in college, Thoreau find the obstacles, because he doesn’t interest in sitting in classroom. He have an ambition to chase his dream.

To find it, Henry set an annual leave and choose to teach at Massachusetts. In between his time teaching,

Thoreau thinks again, what’s next? He doesn’t interest become an office employee. And when work in school, Thoreau cant bear to give a physical punishment, so he is fired.

His searching is ending when he meets Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson finds his “soulmate” because they believe in the same value: independence, dignity, and metaphysical power of nature.

Emerson also teach Thoreau about journaling. This journal helps him in documenting his masterpiece.

You can enjoy his masterpiece with these 57 Henry David Thoreau quotes below.

Henry David Thoreau Quotes To Be Happy With Your Life

1. “The language of friendship is not words but meanings.”

2. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

3. “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.”

4. “Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.”

5. “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.”

6. “Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

7. “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”

8. “All good things are wild and free.”

9. “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.”

10. “Things do not change; we change.”

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

12. “Be yourself – not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”

13. “I make myself rich by making my wants few.”

14. “There is no remedy for love, but to love more.”

15. “Every man is a builder of a temple called his body.”

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

17. “The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.”

18. “I have a room all to myself; it is nature.”

19. “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.

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

21. “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.”

22. “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”

23. “I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”

24. “I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”

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

26. “It is never too late to give up your prejudices.”

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

28. “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”

29. “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

30. “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.

31.“Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.”

32. “Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.”

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

34. “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.”

35. ““Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.”

36. “If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”

37. “We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.”

38. “If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”

39. “We are constantly invited to be what we are.”

40. “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”

41.” Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.”

42. “The heart is forever inexperienced.”

43. “Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.”

44. “Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”

45. “Simplify, simplify.”

46.” To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.”

47. “Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be.”

48. “The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.”

49. “It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and another to hear.”

50. “It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.”