Henry David Thoreau

I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, run for your life.

Once, a few weeks after I came to the woods, for an hour I
doubted whether the near neighborhood of man was not essential
to a serene and healthy life. To be alone was somewhat unpleasant.
But in the midst of a gentle rain, while these thoughts prevailed, I
was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in
Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sight and
sound around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness
all at once, like an atmosphere, sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since. Every little pine-needle expanded and swelled
with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware
of the presence of something kindred to me, that I thought no place
could ever be strange to me again.

What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

We live but a fraction of our lives. - Henry David Thoreau

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.