All Quotes · Page 48

6202 hand-picked quotes from 239 philosophers, writers, and leaders.

Page 48 of 259

“When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.”

— Confucius

“Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity.”

— Confucius

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“A living dog is better than a dead lion.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money?”

— Henry David Thoreau

“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority?”

— Henry David Thoreau

“We preserve the so-called peace of our community by deeds of petty violence every day.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history and biography.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“There is more religion in men's science than there is science in their religion.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“Go where we will on the surface of things, men have been there before us.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.”

— Henry David Thoreau

“If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.”

— Henry David Thoreau