Quotes about Balance
If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
— Henry David Thoreau
I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, to life itself, than this incessant business.
— Henry David Thoreau
I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a passtime, if we live simply and wisely
— Henry David Thoreau
To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exlcude yourself from the true enjoyment of it.
— Henry David Thoreau
There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony.
— Henry David Thoreau
The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
— Henry David Thoreau
Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.
— Henry David Thoreau
Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
— Henry David Thoreau
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live.
— Henry David Thoreau
The seasons and all their changes are in me.
— Henry David Thoreau
You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.
— Henry David Thoreau
Real power is measured by how much you can let things be.
— Henry David Thoreau