Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Character
I should like not to exchange any of my life for money.—Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake, 31 December 1856
If any ever went away disappointed or hungry from my house when they found me at home, they may depend upon it that I sympathized with them at least.—Walden
If you wish to give a man a sense of poverty, give him a thousand dollars. The next hundred dollars he gets will not be worth more than ten that he used to get. Have pity on him; withhold your gifts.—Journal, 20 January 1856
In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting out our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all. I find it invariably true, the poorer I am, the richer I am. What you consider my disadvantage, I consider my advantage.—Journal, 5 December 1856
Manners are conscious. Character is unconscious.—Journal, 16 February 1851
Many brave men have there been, thank Fortune, but I shall never grow brave by comparison.—Journal, 29 November 1839
Men invite the devil in at every angle and then prate about the garden of Eden and the fall of man.—Journal, 5 November 1855
No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes.—Walden
Not to grieve long for any action, but to go immediately and do freshly and otherwise, subtracts so much from the wrong.—Journal, 9 January 1842
