It would be worth the while to select our reading, for books are the society we keep; to read only the serenely true; never statistics, nor fiction, nor news, nor reports, nor periodicals, but only great poems, and when they failed, read them again, or perchance write more. Instead of other sacrifice, we might offer up our perfect (teleia) thoughts to the gods daily, in hymns or psalms. For we should be at the helm at least once a day.
Henry David ThoreauEvery morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.
Henry David ThoreauThe perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.
Henry David ThoreauIf I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself.
Henry David Thoreau