After all the field of battle possesses many advantages over the drawing-room. There at least is no room for pretension or excessive ceremony, no shaking of hands or rubbing of noses, which make one doubt your sincerity, but hearty as well as hard hand-play. It at least exhibits one of the faces of humanity, the former only a mask.
Henry David ThoreauA true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune.
Henry David ThoreauThe youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.
Henry David ThoreauThe merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization.
Henry David Thoreau