The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

More quotes by Henry David Thoreau

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"What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."

- Henry David Thoreau

Courage

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

- Henry David Thoreau

Success

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought and attended to my answer."

- Henry David Thoreau

Respect

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."

- Henry David Thoreau

Mindfulness

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau

Ambition

More Adversity Quotes

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"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

Adversity

"The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it."

- Epicurus

Adversity

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Adversity

"The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that’s where it’s at."

- Jesse Owens

Adversity

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

- Frederick Douglass

Adversity