Late in the afternoon we passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole.... The characteristics and pursuits of various ages and races of men are always existing in epitome in every neighborhood. The pleasures of my earliest youth have become the inheritance of other men. This man is still a fisher, and belongs to an era in which I myself have lived.
Henry David ThoreauI have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.
Henry David ThoreauWe find it difficult to choose our direction because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea.
Henry David ThoreauMorning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world?
Henry David ThoreauThe government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.
Henry David ThoreauWe waded so gently and reverently, or we pulled together so smoothly, that the fishes of thought were not scared from the stream, nor feared any angler on the bank, but came and went grandly, like the clouds which came and went on the western sky, and the mother-o'-pearl flocks which sometimes form and dissolve there.
Henry David Thoreau