Once, a few weeks after I came to the woods, for an hour I
doubted whether the near neighborhood of man was not essential
to a serene and healthy life. To be alone was somewhat unpleasant.
But in the midst of a gentle rain, while these thoughts prevailed, I
was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in
Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sight and
sound around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness
all at once, like an atmosphere, sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since. Every little pine-needle expanded and swelled
with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware
of the presence of something kindred to me, that I thought no place
could ever be strange to me again.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

"I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes."

"Confucious said, 'To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  When we consider what, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other.  Yet they honestly think there is no choice left.  But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear.  It is never too late to give up our prejudices.  No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.  What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion."