Henry David Thoreau; quotes from Walden:
Steven Bailey, ND
WALDEN QUOTES:
“Would it not be well if we were to celebrate such a “busk” or “feast of first fruits”, as Bartram describes to have been the custom of the Mucclasse Indians? “When a town celebrates the busk” he says, “having previously provided themselves with new clothes, new pots, pans and other household utensils and furniture, they collect all their worn out clothes and other despicable things, sweep and cleanse their houses, squares, and the whole town, of their filth, which with all the remaining grain and other old provisions they cast together into one common heap, and consume it with fire. After having taken medicine, and fasted for three days, all the fire in the town is extinguished. During the fast they abstain from the gratification of every appetite and passion whatever. A general amnesty is proclaimed; all malefactors may return to their town.””
“On the forth morning, the high priest, by rubbing dry wood together, produces new fire in the public square, from whence every habitation in the town is supplied with the new and pure flame.” p. 47
“They then feast on the new corn and fruits, and dance and sing for three days, “and the four following days they receive visits and rejoice with their friends from neighboring towns who have in the like manner purified and prepared themselves.””
“The Mexicans also practiced a similar purification at the end of every fifty-two years,” p. 47
“I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street of Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no more than my present one.” p. 47
“Which would have advanced the more at the end of a months,- the body who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary, for this- or the boy who had attended the lecture on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Roger’s penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?” p. 35
“In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain oneself on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely;” p. 47
“There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.”
“I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.” p. 52
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” p.52
“My instinct tells me that my head is an organ burrowing, as some creatures use their snout and for-paws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I begin to mine. p. 61
“Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again”” p. 61
“The mourning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour.” P. 61
“That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.” p. 61
Emerson
“digest and correct past experience; and blend it with the new and divine life.” Walden, p. 68
“I kept neither dog, cat, cow, pig, not hens, so that you would have said there was a deficiency of domestic sounds; neither the churn, nor the spinning-wheel, nor even the singing of the kettle, nor the hissing of the urn, nor children cry to comfort one. An old-fashioned man would have lost his senses or died of ennui before this. Not even rats in the wall, for they were starved out, or rather were never baited in,” p. 88
Re Canadian neighbor;
“At another time, hearing Plato’s definition of a man, -a biped without feathers,- and that one exhibited a cock plucked and called it Plato’s man, he thought it an important difference that the knees were bent the wrong way.” p 103
“And now to night my flute has waked the echoes over that very water.” p 107
“Not that I wanted beans to eat, for I am by nature a Pythagorean, so far as beans are concerned, whether they mean porridge or voting, and exchanged them for rice; but perchance, as some must work in fields if only for the sake of tropes and expression, to serve as parable-maker one day.” p 112
“Besides, there was a still more terrible standing invitation to call at everyone of these house, and company expected about these times. For the most part, I escaped wonderfully from these changes, either by proceeding at once boldly and without deliberances to the good, as is recommended to those who run the gauntlet, or by keeping
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