Henry David Thoreau

(July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher.

The most tender plants can push their way through the hardest rocks, and it is the same with kindness. Nothing can stop a truly kind and sincere person.
When I sit on the seashore and listen to the waves beating on the sand, I feel free from any obligation, and I think that all the people of the world can change their constitutions without me.
It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Think: what do you work at?
A wise man has doubts even in his best moments. Real truth is always accompanied by hesitations. If I could not hesitate, I could not believe.
Our life would become wonderful if we could see all the disgusting things which exist in it.
When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time.
Many statements which are accepted as truth because they have been passed down to us by tradition look like truth only because we have never tested them, never thought about them in a more precise way. For the majority of mankind, religion is a habit, or, more precisely, tradition is their religion. Though it seems strange, I think that the first step to moral perfection is your liberation from the religion in which you were raised. Not a single person has come to perfection except by following this way.
The body is the first student of the soul.
A man cannot do everything; but this cannot be an excuse for doing bad things.
The biggest happiness is when at the end of the year you feel better than at the beginning.
The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.
Only when we forget what we were taught do we start to have real knowledge.
Read the best books first, otherwise you’ll find you do not have time.