Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Integrity

• Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Motivational, Friendship, Nature

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.15, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Cheating, Integrity

  Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.83, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

• Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Business, Integrity, Bad Day

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.133, Graphic Arts Books

• Be not merely good. Be good for something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Good Times, Be Good

• We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Time, Integrity, Vices

  Henry David Thoreau (1975). “Early Essays and Miscellanies”, p.224, Princeton University Press

• What is once well done is done forever.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Inspiration, Forever

  Henry David Thoreau (1942). “Civil Disobedience”, p.10, Hayes Barton Press

• Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Nails, Machines

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.193, Graphic Arts Books

• It is not enough that we are truthful; we must cherish and carry out high purposes to be truthful about.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Truth, Integrity, Purpose

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1140, Delphi Classics

• The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Character, Ethics

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.199, Delphi Classics

• The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Leisure

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.156, Penguin

• A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Honesty, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.688, Simon and Schuster

• But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

• It makes no odds where a man goes or stays, if he is only about his business.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Travel, Integrity, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.197, Jazzybee Verlag

• For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Integrity, Responsibility

  Henry David Thoreau (1894). “The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: With Bibliographical Introductions and Full Indexes”

• How sweet it would be to treat men and things, for an hour, for just what they are!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sweet, Truth, Integrity

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.361, Penguin

• Some, it seems to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Thinking

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1225, Delphi Classics

• A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Character, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.105, Penguin

• I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Integrity, Significance

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.142, Jazzybee Verlag

• You need not rest your reputation on the dinners you give.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Giving, Needs

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.92, Cosimo, Inc.

• I must conclude that Conscience, if that be the name of it, was not given us for no purpose, or for a hindrance. However flattering order and expediency may look, it is but the repose of a lethargy, and we will choose rather to be awake, though it be stormy, and maintain ourselves on this earth, and in this life, as we may, without signing our death-warrant. Let us see if we cannot stay here, where He has put us, on his own conditions. Does not his law reach as far as his light? The expedients of the nations clash with one another: only the absolutely right is expedient for all.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Light, Order

  Henry David Thoreau (1906). “The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers”

• Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Clothes, Want

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

• Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations tomen; his labor would be depreciated in the market.
  He has no time to be anything but a machine.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Would Be

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.12

• Every man should stand for a force which is perfectly irresistible.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Power, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Familiar Letters (Annotated Edition)”, p.133, Jazzybee Verlag

• This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Men, Vitality

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience: Top American Literary”, p.206, 谷月社

• Methinks I am never quite committed, never wholly the creature of my moods, but always to some extent their critic. My only integral experience is in my vision. I see, perchance, with more integrity than I feel.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Integrity, Commitment, Vision

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.359, Penguin

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