Henry David Thoreau Quotations: LAND & WATER
The land seemed to grow fairer as we withdrew from it.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
The muskrat and the fresh water muscle are very native to our river. The Indian, their human compere, has departed.—Journal, 7 October 1851
The prospect of the young is forward and unbounded, mingling the future with the present. In the declining day the thoughts make haste to rest in darkness, and hardly look forward to the ensuing morning. The thoughts of the old prepare for night and slumber. The same hopes and prospects are not for him who stands upon the rosy mountain-tops of life, and him who expects the setting of his earthly day.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
The sharp whistle of the blackbird, too, is heard like single sparks or a shower of them shot up from the swamps and seen against the dark winter in the rear.—Journal, 2 March 1859
The stars are the mountain peaks of celestial countries.—Journal, 2 February 1841
The trees now in the rain look heavy and rich all day, as commonly at twilight, drooping with the weight of wet leaves.—Journal, 17 July 1852
The wood still cheerfully and unsuspiciously echoes the strokes of the axe that fells it, and while they are few and seldom, they enhance its wildness, and all the elements strive to naturalize the sound.—"A Winter Walk"
The wood-thrush sang on the distant shore, and the laugh of some loons, sporting in a concealed western bay, as if inspired by morning, came distinct over the lake to us, and, what was remarkable, the echo which ran round the lake was much louder than the original note; probably because, the loons being in a regularly curving bay under the mountain, we were exactly in the focus of many echoes, the sound being reflected like light from a concave mirror.—The Maine Woods
There being much more ice and snow within the swamp, the vapor is condensed and is blown northwards over the railroad.—Journal, 12 March 1859
There is a certain glory attends on water by night. By it the heavens are related to the earth—Undistinguishable from a sky beneath you.—Journal, 13 June 1851
