Authors / Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau quotes

1817–1862 · American essayist and naturalist

Thoreau spent two years in a cabin at Walden Pond and turned it into one of the great books about how to live. His real sentences are longer and stranger than the poster versions.

4 real · 1 not theirs

Really theirs

4 quotes traced to Henry David Thoreau's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
Source: Walden, "Economy" (1854)
Sourced
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.
Source: Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" (1854)
Sourced
Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify.
Source: Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" (1854)
Sourced
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Source: Walden, "Conclusion" (1854)

Not theirs

1 famous lines credited to Henry David Thoreau that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Misquoted
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.

The real words: Poster version of Walden's Conclusion: "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."