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“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
Resist much, obey little.” ...
“I am satisfied ... ...
“Give me the splendid, silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling.” ...
“If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.” ...
“And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles” ...
“Battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.”
“What is that you express in your eyes? It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.”
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.”
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