Henry David Thoreau Quotes

I've lived a slower and less expensive life going off the grid, and I'm happier because of it.

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

I've always been pretty self-sufficient. I never had to borrow money from my mum, even in the early days.

I live below my means because it makes what I do seem less like a job and more like a passion.

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth .

So, make a real effort to avoid getting sucked into all the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans. Because if you do that, then people with the money will dictate what you do with your life.

He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.

You can survive in New York without much, if you're careful. You have to make your own food at home, and don't buy a lot of clothes.

Instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.

I'm a practitioner of elegant frugality. I don't feel comfortable telling other people what to do, so I just try and lead by example.

Being self-supporting is important to me.

I've lived very well all my life, even when I had no money, and there's very little I can't afford.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means - either may do - the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

There wasn't a rich father or rich family that paid for everything that I have right now, so I worked my way.

I've always earned my own money and enjoy being independent. It's how I was brought up.

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

My dad was pretty old school. I've had a job since I can remember, and it's not like he was like, 'Hey, what kind of car do you want?' My first car was a '91 Ford Crown Victoria that was $1,000. And I had to buy every car after that. I had to do it all.

Security depends not so much upon how much you have, as upon how much you can do without.

I believe in singing for my supper. I'll never accept a grant because what I do should be able to be founded purely on free enterprise.

My mom always told me one of the reasons that she was really happy in her life was that, if Dad never worked again, she was confident that she could support the family.

At the risk of sounding like Virginia Woolf, I could live on £700 a year.

My material life is simple.

I don't live lavishly, so it's not like I have 20 assistants and travel privately and shop every day.

I'm not the kind that could lead the millionaire lifestyle. I've got a truck, and I've got my bike. I've got a lovely Labrador and two kitty-cats. I live very modestly.

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.