It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and every one who works is scrubbing in some part.
Henry David ThoreauFishing has been styled 'a contemplative man's recreation,' ... and science is only a more contemplative man's recreation.
Henry David ThoreauThere never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.
Henry David ThoreauSince all things are good, men fail at last to distinguish which is the bane and which the antidote.
Henry David ThoreauWhether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to the nature of fishes, since they are not phenomena confined to certain localities only, but forms and phases of the life in nature universally dispersed. The countless shoals which annually coast the shores of Europe and America are not so interesting to the student of nature as the more fertile law itselffrom which it results that they may be found in water in so many places, in greater or lesser numbers.
Henry David Thoreau