Justice is sweet and musical; but injustice is harsh and discordant.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Insane!... Ask the tyrant who is his most dangerous foe, the sane man or the insane?

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority.

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them?

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment.

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

Morning brings back the heroic ages.

I stopped short in the path today to admire how the trees grow up without forethought regardless of the time and circumstances. They do not wait as men do—now is the golden age of the sapling—Earth, air, sun, and rain, are occasion enough.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

A lady once offered me a mat, but as I had no room to spare within the house, nor time to spare within or without to shake it, I declined it, preferring to wipe my feet on the sod before my door. It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that 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.

My friend is one... who take me for what I am.

I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.

A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.

Still we live meanly like ants, though the fable tells us we were long ago changed into men.

Nothing can shock a brave man but dullness.

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.

Some do not walk at all; others walk in the highways; a few walk across lots.