Thoreau writes his essay “Sound and Silence” in his journal:
Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel of all day discourses and all foolish acts, as balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as [after] disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure be may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum.
