Henry David Thoreau Famous Quotations

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer, and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. These famous quotes dealing with goals, achievement, and success have been attributed to him.

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
Dreams are the touchstones of our character.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
Live the life you've dreamed.
Men are born to succeed, not to fail.
Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
What you get by achieving your goals is to as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.