How admirably the artist is made to accomplish his self-culture by devotion to his art! The wood-sawyer, through his effort to do his work well, becomes not merely a better wood-sawyer, but measurably a better man.
—Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 19 December 1853How far can you carry your practicalness? How far does your knowledge really extend?
—Journal, 7 June 1851How happens it we reverence the stones which fall from another planet, and not the stones which belong to this—another globe, not this—heaven, and not earth? Are not the stones in Hodge’s wall as good as the aerolite at Mecca? Is not our broad back-door-stone as good as any corner-stone in heaven.
—Journal, 30 August 1856How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health! The discipline of the schools or of business can never impart such serenity to the mind.
—Journal, 6 May 1851How is it that we are impelled to treat our old friends so ill when we obtain new ones?
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversHow little I know of that arbor-vitae when I have learned only what science can tell me!
—Journal, 5 March 1858How many men have you seen that did not belong to any sect, or party, or clique.
—Journal, 9 August 1858How many things can you go away from? They see the comet from the northwest coast just as plainly as we do, and the same stars through its tail. Take the shortest way round and stay at home. A man dwells in his native valley like a corolla in its calyx, like an acorn in its cup. Here, of course, is all that you love, all that you expect, all that you are. Here is your bride elect, as close to you as she can be got. Here is all the best and all the worst you can imagine. What more do you want? Bear hereaway then! Foolish people imagine that what they imagine is somewhere else. That stuff is not made in any factory but your own.
—Journal, 1 November 1858How much Nature herself suffers from drought! It seems quite as much as she can do to produce these crops.
—Journal, 19 August 1851How much of beauty—of color, as well as form—on which our eyes daily rest goes unperceived by us!
—Journal, 1 August 1860How much of the life of certain men goes to sustain—to make respected—the institutions of society.
—Journal, 6 September 1851