Henry David Thoreau quotes

"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth" (Thoreau). Thoreau is referring to life itself. He is saying that instead of having so many things in life he much rather have honesty, truth. Ya you can have love, but is it real like really real not something that someone says just so they can say that they have someone in their life. You can have money, but what was the true cost to get that green paper that you cherish so much. Fame is great, but do the people who adore like you or what you did. Thoreau would much rather someone tell them the truth as to whether or not they are truly love them. He'd like to know where that money came from rather than have it and not care who it was taken from. He'd rather have people adore his work because that's what they like most.

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination" (Thoreau). Henry is referring to the world and imagination. "You can do anything you put your mind to" is what we're always told in school. Henry would tell us the same thing. You can imagine anything you could want but for it to become real you must do it yourself. Imagination is an amazing thing that brings us happiness because it's a place where anything can be real. If you want everyone in the world to see it though, you have to work on it. Just like painting, artists use their imagination then they work on it. They pay attention to every detail to make not good, not great, but perfect. If you put your mind into something and put the time into it then that idea that image inside your head. It will be a reality.

"Be yourself-not the idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be" (Thoreau) This quote is referring to a person's self. It's basically saying that you shouldn't try to be something that you believe that other people expect you to be. You should be yourself. Take a female for instance. They are expected to dress great, be beautiful, slim, do household chores, and many other things. They don't have to be and do those things. They're human being just like men. We are all human being and we can be what we want and be who we want. Just because that's "womanly" doesn't mean that they have to be that way.