There is an orientalism in the most restless pioneer, and the farthest west is but the farthest east.
Henry David ThoreauWhere the most beautiful wild flowers grow, there mans spirit is fed and poets grow.
Henry David ThoreauThere have been heroes for whom this world seemed expressly prepared, as if creation had at last succeeded; whose daily life was the stuff of which our dreams are made, and whose presence enhanced the beauty and ampleness of Nature herself.
Henry David ThoreauIf one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see still upon the walls of the temple of Minerva the circular marks made by the shields taken from the enemy in the Persian war, which were suspended there. We have not far to seek for living and unquestionable evidence. The very dust takes shape and confirms some story which we had read.
Henry David Thoreau