Henry David Thoreau
Traced to source
18 quotes we’ve traced to Henry David Thoreau
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone”
Verified“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual”
Verified“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived”
Verified“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours”
Verified“In wildness is the preservation of the world”
Verified“It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear”
Verified“Men have become the tools of their tools”
Verified“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves”
Verified“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand”
Verified“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest”
Verified“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”
Verified“This world is but canvas to our imaginations”
Verified“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm”
Attributed“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see”
Disputed“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them”
Disputed“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it”
Disputed“Truths and roses have thorns about them”
Disputed“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life”
DisputedNot actually Henry David Thoreau
Often misattributed to Henry David Thoreau
Famous lines widely pinned on Henry David Thoreau that we’ve traced to someone else.
“Every Ambitious Would-Be Empire Clarions It Abroad That She Is Conquering the World to Bring It Peace”
actually Taylor Caldwell
“Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder”
actually J. Richard Lessor (per the Walden Woods Project) — not Thoreau
“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them”
Henry David Thoreau & Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it”
actually Unknown — falsely credited to Thoreau
“Truths and roses have thorns about them”
actually Unknown (a traditional proverb)
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life”
actually Unknown
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”
actually Henry Stanley Haskins
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals”
actually Zig Ziglar
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Thought Henry David Thoreau said something else?
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