For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found that, by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living.
—WaldenFor my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life—I wrote this some years ago—that were worth the postage.
—WaldenFor my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border life, on the confines of a world, into which I make occasional and transient forays only, and my patriotism and allegiance to the state into whose territories I seem to retreat are those of a moss-trooper. Unto a life which I call natural I would gladly follow even a will-o’-the-wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable, but no moon nor fire-fly has shown me the cause-way to it. Nature is a personality so vast and universal that we have never seen one of her features.
—"Walking"For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.
—WaldenFor one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an axe or rifle.
—The Maine WoodsFor the most part we can only treat one another to our wit, our good manners and equanimity, and though we have eagles to give we demand of each other only coppers.
—"Reform and Reformers"For the true art is not merely a sublime consolation and holiday labor, which the gods have given to sickly mortals; but such a masterpiece as you may imagine a dweller on the tablelands of central Asia might produce, with threescore and ten years for canvas, and the faculties of a man for tools,—a human life; wherein you might hope to discover more than the freshness of Guido’s Aurora, or the mild light of Titian’s landscapes,—no bald imitation nor even rival of Nature, but rather the restored original of which she is the reflection.
—"The Service"Friendship is the fruit which the year should bear; it lends its fragrance to flowers, and it is in vain if we get only a large crop of apples without it.
—Journal, 13 July 1857From the right point of view, every storm and every drop in it is a rainbow.
—Journal, 11 December 1855Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.
—The Maine WoodsGenius is the worst of lumber, if the poet would float upon the breeze of popularity.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversGive me the old familiar walk, post-office and all, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten. We’ll go nutting once more. We’ll pluck the nut of the world, and crack it in the winter evenings. Theaters and all other sightseeing are puppet-shows in comparison. I will take another walk to the Cliff, another row on the river, another skate on the meadow, be out in the first snow, and associate with the winter birds. Here I am at home. In the bare and bleached crust of the earth I recognize my friend.
—Journal, 1 November 1858Go and measure to what length the silvery willows catkins have crept out beyond their scales, if you would know what time o’ the year it is by Nature’s clock.
—Journal, 2 March 1859Go not so far out of your way for a truer life—keep strictly onward in that path alone which your genius points out. Do the things which lie nearest to you but which are difficult to do.
—Journal, 12 January 1852Go where we will, we discover infinite change in particulars only, not in generals.
—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversGod himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages.
—Walden