Ralph Waldo Emerson: in F. B. Sanborn, The Personality of Thoreau

       My children think Henry rather snubs them. He said the Linnoea borealis did not flower in Concord, till E. carried it to him, gathered near one of our paths in the park. Why is he never frank? That was an excellent saying of Elizabeth Hoar’s, "I love Henry, but I can never like him." What is so cheap as politeness? Never had I the least social pleasure with him, though [p. 61] often the best conversation, in which he goes along accumulating one thing upon another so lavishly—when he is not pugnacious. And in matters practical he makes it worth my while to pay him surveyor’s wages for doing other things ...; he is so thoughtful, has such a conscience about it, and does so much more than he bargained to do. When he undertakes anything, you may be sure the thing will be done; he has the common sense of Shakespeare.