(1817–1862)
U.S. author, poet, and naturalist“To effect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”
more infosource: “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” in Walden (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1910), 117.
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medium: Nonfiction
“I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a humble-bee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.”
more infosource: “Solitude,” in Walden: or, Life in the Woods (Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company, 1899), 156.
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category: alone, introvert, solitude
medium: Nonfiction
“The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the ‘means’ are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.”
more infosource: “Civil Disobedience,” in Walden (New York: Signet Classics, 1999), 277.
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category: poverty, quality of life, wealth
medium: nonfiction
via: Elisa Zazzera“Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,—to see its perfect success.”
more infosource: The Maine Woods (Boston, MA: Ticknor and Fields, 1864), 123–24.
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category: forest, nature, pine, tree
medium: nonfiction
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
more infosource: Walden (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1904), 50.
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category: crowd, introvert, pumpkin
medium: nonfiction
“A traveler is to be reverenced as such. His profession is the best symbol of our life. Going from — toward — ; it is the history of every one of us.”
more infosource: Diary entry dated July 2, 1851, in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Vol 6 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1884), 276.
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category: history, profession, travel
medium: diary
“There is no remedy for love but to love more.”
more infosource: The Journal 1837–1861 (New York: New York Review of Books, 2009), 7.
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category: advice, breakup, love, remedy
medium: diary
notes: diary entry dated July 25, 1839
“The green of the ice and water begins to be visible about half an hour before sunset. Is it produced by the reflected blue of the sky mingling with the yellow or pink of the setting sun?”
more infosource: The Journal 1837–1861 (New York: New York Review of Books, 2009), 539.
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category: blue, color, green, ice, nature, pink, sky, sun, sunset, yellow
medium: diary
notes: diary entry dated January 20, 1859
“When you have been deprived of your usual quantity of sleep for several nights, you sleep much more soundly for it, and wake up suddenly like a bullet that strikes a wall.”
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Henry David Thoreau