Nothing but great antiquity can make graveyards interesting to me. I have no friends there.

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.

The universe expects every man to do his duty in his parallel of latitude.

For hours, in fall days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman;... but what beside safety they got by sailing in the middle of Walden I do not know, unless they love its water for the same reason that I do.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right... Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

For things to change, we must change.

Shall I not rejoice also at the abundance of the weeds whose seeds are the granary of the birds?