Henry David Thoreau Quotations: SEASONS
Nature has found her hoarse summer voice again, like the lowing of a cow let out to the pasture. It is Nature's rutting season.—Journal, 19 May 1856
Nature works by contraries. That which in summer was most fluid and unresting is now most solid and motionless.—Journal, 11 February 1859
No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of spring.—Journal, 17 March 1857
No one to my knowledge has observed the minute differences in the seasons.—Journal, 11 June 1851
Not till half a mile further my doubting companion feels another on his nose also, and I get one [in] my eye, and soon after I see the countless dimples in the puddles on the ice. So measured and deliberate is Nature always.—Journal, 14 February 1859
October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight.—"Autumnal Tints"
Only the spring sun will soften the heart of this restless monster, when, commonly, it is too late.—Journal, 11 February 1859
Painted by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or crimson, as if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the influence of the sun on all sides alike,—some with the faintest pink blush imaginable,—some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or with hundreds of fine blood-red rays running regularly from the stem-dimple to the blossom end, like meridional lines, on a straw-colored ground,—some touched with a greenish rust, like a fine lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches or eyes more or less confluent and fiery when wet,—and others gnarly, and freckled or peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on a white ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who paints the autumn leaves.—"Wild Apples"
Shall a man not have his spring as well as the plants?—Journal, June 1850
So mild the air a pleasure 'twas to breathe,
For what seems heaven above was earth beneath.—"May Morning"
