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Then at night the general stillness is more impressive than any sound, but occasionally you hear the note of an owl farther or nearer in the woods, and if near a lake, the semihuman cry of the loons at their unearthly revels.

Henry David Thoreau

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Henry David Thoreau
Age: 44 †
Born: 1817
Born: July 12
Died: 1862
Died: May 6
Abolitionist
Author
Autobiographer
Diarist
Ecologist
Environmentalist
Essayist
Naturalist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
Writer
birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau
Henry D. Thoreau
Night
Note
Owl
Near
Nearer
Woods
Farther
Notes
Lake
Cry
Impressive
General
Occasionally
Hear
Stillness
Revels
Sound
Lakes
Unearthly

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I hate the present modes of living and getting a living. Farming and shopkeeping and working at a trade or profession are all odious to me. I should relish getting my living in a simple, primitive fashion.
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If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies.
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As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.
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Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art.
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The frontiers are not east or west, north or south, but wherever a man fronts a fact.
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Keep up the fires of thought, and all will go well.
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If labor mainly, or to any considerable degree, serves the purpose of a police, to keep men out of mischief, it indicates a rottenness at the foundation of our community.
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Waves of a serene life pass over us from time to time, like flakes of sunlight over the fields in cloudy weather.
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The object of love expands and grows before us to eternity, until it includes all that is lovely, and we become all that can love.
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Do not despair of life. You have no doubt force enough to overcome your obstacles. Think of the fox prowling through wood and field in a winter night for something to satisfy his hunger. Notwithstanding cold and the hounds and traps, his race survives. I do not believe any of them ever committed suicide.
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Summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf.
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I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account.
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Of what significance are the things you can forget.
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To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
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Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye.
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We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.
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Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.
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The fishermen say that the thundering of the pond scares the fishes and prevents their biting.
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I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least - and it is commonly more than that - sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.
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The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.
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