Favorite Henry David Thoreau Quotes

[ERIC]

Another one of my favorites is Henry David Thoreau. Below is something he wrote that I love because although similar sayings have made it somewhat cliche now, this quote inspired fresh thought in his time.

Anyone else here enjoy Thoreau?

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads..." - Henry David Thoreau

[Rosabella]

I don't know a lot of Thoreau, but I'll throw in my favorite R.W. Emerson (just 'cause I kinda put them in the same category )

"To laugh often and love much;
to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived...
this is to have succeeded"

[adam921]

"The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild, and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind."

[Davidpcvsamoa]

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify!

[lostcoyote]

"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..."

[Fly Guy Dave]

I don't know a lot of Thoreau, but I'll throw in my favorite R.W. Emerson (just 'cause I kinda put them in the same category )

Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman and a few others were considered to the best examples of the Transcendentalist movement back in the 19th century, so your assessment is right on track.
That being said, my two favorite Thoreau quotes are:

"The man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest"

and

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation..."

[lostcoyote]

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation..."

^^^
this is the quote i think of when i encounter some folks in the sierras, who must pack 20 miles a day just to get back to work in 3 days.

[Harlen]

Here's one to live by:

"Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are ... positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."

This can have an almost literal meaning to us lovers of mountains and high "elevation."
What if I were to choose to stay home on the couch, and away from my beloved mountains, because the late rounds of Wimbledon were playing on the telly?!