A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.
Henry David ThoreauWhat wealth is it to have such friends that we cannot think of them without elevation!
Henry David ThoreauWe have built for this world a family mansion, and the next a family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of man's struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher state to be forgotten.
Henry David ThoreauThe stars are the jewels of the night, and perchance surpass anything which day has to show.
Henry David ThoreauI was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They can only force me who obey a higher law than I.... I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live?
Henry David Thoreau