Thoreau

Character of the week: Thoreau

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality.

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future as finishers.

All this worldly wisdom was once the heresy of some wise man.

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.

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

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Be not simply good – be good for something.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

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

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

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

 

Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher