There are two classes of authors: the one write the history of their times, the other their biography.

If words were invented to conceal thought, newspapers are a great improvement of a bad invention

That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline.

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.

What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses? A government that pretends to be Christian and crucifies a million Christs every day!

I have found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake,I pray?