I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and to suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.

I make myself rich by making my wants few.

With all your science can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul?

It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning round.

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

Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science.

I know of no rule which holds so true as that we are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and the other to hear.

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.