We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.Henry David Thoreau
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.Henry David Thoreau
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.Henry David Thoreau
Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.Henry David Thoreau
Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?Henry David Thoreau
While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.Henry David Thoreau
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.Henry David Thoreau
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.Henry David Thoreau
