Henry David Thoreau
1817 – 1862
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, and naturalist, best known for his reflections on simple living in natural surroundings. His masterwork 'Walden' recounts two years spent in a cabin by Walden Pond, while 'Civil Disobedience' became a foundational text for nonviolent resistance, influencing Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. A leading figure of transcendentalism, Thoreau championed individual conscience over societal conformity.
Key works: Walden · Civil Disobedience · A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Top quotes by 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 the foundations under them.”
Read the full explanation →“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.”
Read the full explanation →“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Read the full explanation →“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
Read the full explanation →“The world is a place of results, or fruit, of causes set ago, and very slowly does the tree bear, and slowly does the wind ripen.”
Read the full explanation →“The law will never make men free; it is men who have to make the law free.”
Read the full explanation →“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
Read the full explanation →“The world is but a canvas to our imagination.”
Read the full explanation →“I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.”
Read the full explanation →“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
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