I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.—"Walking"
I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.—Walden
It is a thorough process, this war with the wilderness—breaking nature, taming the soil, feeding it on oats. The civilized man regards the pine tree as his enemy. He will fell it and let in the light, grub it up and raise wheat or rye there. It is no better than a fungus to him.—Journal, 2 February 1852
Men have become the tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits when he was hungry is become a farmer.—Journal, 14 July 1845
Successful farming admits of no idling.—Journal, 23 July 1852
The farmer has always come to the field after some material thing: that is not what a philosopher goes there for.—Journal, 14 October 1857
The farmer increases the extent of habitable earth. He makes soil. That is an honorable occupation.—Journal, 2 March 1852
The scholar's and the farmers's work are strictly analogous. . . . He is doing like myself. My barn-yard is my journal.—Journal, 20 January 1852
These modern ingenious sciences and arts do not affect me as those more venerable arts of hunting and fishing, and even of husbandry in its primitive and simple form; as ancient and honorable trades as the sun and moon and winds pursue, coeval with the faculties of man, and invented when these were invented.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
When I witness the first plowing and planting, I acquire a long-lost confidence in the earth,—that it will nourish the seed that is committed to its bosom.—Journal, 28 March 1857
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