Famous Quotes & Sayings

Henry David Thoreau

When I think of the gold-diggers and the Mormons, the slaves and the slave-holders and the flibustiers, I naturally dream of a glorious private life. No, I am not patriotic.

Henry David Thoreau

This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work.

Henry David Thoreau

I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a little way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad base spreads over a village or two, which does not know it; neither does it know them, nor do I when I ascend it. I can see its general outline as plainly now in my mind as that of Wachusett. I do not invent in the least, but state exactly what I see. I find that I go up it when I am light-footed and earnest. It ever smokes like an altar with its sacrifice. I am not aware that a single villager frequents it or knows of it. I keep this mountain to ride instead of a horse.

Henry David Thoreau

The wildest dreams of wild men, even, are not the less true, though they may not recommend themselves to the sense which is most common among Englishmen and Americans to-day. It is not every truth that recommends itself to the common sense. Nature has a place for the wild clematis as well as for the cabbage. Some expressions of truth are reminiscent,--others merely sensible, as the phrase is,--others prophetic.

Henry David Thoreau

In the mythus a superhuman intelligence uses the unconscious thoughts and dreams of men as its hieroglyphics to address men unborn.

Henry David Thoreau

It is interesting to observe with what singular unanimity the farthest sundered nations and generations consent to give completeness and roundness to an ancient fable, of which they indistinctly appreciate the beauty or the truth. By a faint and dream-like effort, though it be only by the vote of a scientific body, the dullest posterity slowly add some trait to the mythus. As when astronomers call the lately discovered planet Neptune; or the asteroid Astr

Henry David Thoreau

I was born upon thy bank, river, My blood flows in thy stream, And thou meanderest forever, At the bottom of my dream.

Henry David Thoreau

Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we hear it again, it is remembered like a dream, reminding us of a previous state of existence. How happens it that the associations it awakens are always pleasing, never saddening, reminiscences of our sanest hours. The voice of nature is always encouraging.

Henry David Thoreau

It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.

Henry David Thoreau

Instead of water we got here a draught of beer, a lumberer's drink, which would acclimate and naturalize a man at once,-which would make him see green, and, if he slept, dream that he heard the wind sough among the pines.

Henry David Thoreau

We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we learn the language.

Henry David Thoreau

Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a west as distant and as fair as that into which the Sun goes down. He appears to migrate westward daily and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those mountain ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which were last gilded by his rays.

Henry David Thoreau

A goal is a dream taken seriously.

Henry David Thoreau

The heroes and discoverers have found true more than was previously believed, only when they were expecting and dreaming of something more than their contemporaries dreamed of, or even themselves discovered, that is, when they were in a frame of mind fitted to behold the truth. Referred to the world's standard, they are always insane. Even savages have indirectly surmised as much.

Henry David Thoreau

The very austerity of the Brahmans is tempting to the devotional soul, as a more refined and nobler luxury. Wants so easily and gracefully satisfied seem like a more refined pleasure. Their conception of creation is peaceful as a dream.

Henry David Thoreau

I never dreamed of any enormity greater than I have committed. I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.

Gyorgy Ligeti

New York is the dream world, the center of jazz and rock

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Never give up on what you really want to do

Jean Paul Gaultier

I am very lucky because I am realizing my childhood dreams, and after presenting my shows it's like a party.

Jean Paul Gaultier

I don't like dreams or reality. I like when dreams become reality because that is my life.

Jean Genet

A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.

Jean Genet

Worse than not realizing the dreams of your youth, would be to have been young and never dreamed at all.

Jillian Bach

David Duchovny is a dream; a dreamboat and a dream. He was so kind... He held my hand after we were done shooting and told me I did great. He's so good at what he does.

Jillian Michaels

Ask yourself this: How much deprivation, how much self-effacement must you suffer through before you act on your desire for meaning and fulfillment? Before it’s your turn to thrive in your life, instead of barely surviving it? Some people live their dreams. Why not you?

Jillian Michaels

Visualize what you want out of life and think big. Don’t feel undeserving. We're all deserving of living our dreams—some of us realize it and some don't. You’re not doing anyone any favors by living small. Embrace these truths and step up. The world is waiting.

Jill Scott

Don't stop dreaming just because you had a nightmare.

Jessica Lynch

I try to dream about peaceful things, beaches, that is what I cannot understand. Why are they chasing me?

Jeremy Bonderman

Everybody's dream is to be in the big leagues, but only one in a million gets here.

Jennifer Carpenter

One of the things I've started doing lately is tracking my dreams. I feel like there's a lot of information there and you can really bring those emotions to the situations that may feel mundane or familiar. That gives them new life and gives you a new relationship with it - if that makes any sort of sense.

Jean Toomer

Whatever I believed, I did; I did with my whole heart and mind as far as possible to do so...

Jean Vanier

It is difficult to make people understand that the ideal doesn't exist, that personal equilibrium and the harmony they dream of come only after years and years of struggle, and that even then they come only as flashes of grace and peace.

Jean de La Fontaine

There's nothing sweeter than a real friend: Not only is he prompt to lend— An angler delicate, he fishes The very deepest of your wishes, And spares your modesty the task His friendly aid to ask. A dream, a shadow, wakes his fear, When pointing at the object dear.

Jhumpa Lahiri

I dream of writing a book like LOVERS some day. It is so spare but so rich. It is history made intimate, and a masterpiece of compression.