"I would fain keep sober always; and..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“It is as hard to see one's self as to look backwards without turning around.”

“The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are determined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusettsis one of the confederated overseers to prevent their escape.”

“But there are spirits of a yet more liberal culture, to whom no simplicity is barren. There are not only stately pines, but fragile flowers, like the orchises, commonly described as too delicate for cultivation, which derive their nutriment from the crudest mass of peat. These remind us, that, not only for strength, but for beauty, the poet must, from time to time, travel the logger's path and the Indian's trail, to drink at some new and more bracing fountain of the Muses, far in the recesses of the wilderness.”

“We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;--and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.”

“One of the early signs of sophistication is not giving way to all inclinations but rather sending your emotions to school so they will learn how to behave.”

“Provocation doesn't make me ill-tempered: it only shows me how ill-tempered I am.”

“Sobriety is love of health, or inability to eat much.”

“I stopped drinking when I had children because I wanted to be awake and aware. I did not want to be going, you know, daddy loves you and then drop my head on the table. I do not want to miss anything that they do or say. It is important to me.”

“After I quit drinking, I realized I am the same asshole I always was; I just have fewer dents in my car.”