Quote

I was awakened at midnight by some heavy, low-flying bird, probably a loon, flapping by close over my head, along the shore. So, turning the other side of my half-clad body to the fire, I sought slumber again.

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
Probably
Turning
Loon
Head
Flying
Flapping
Sides
Lows
Clad
Fire
Heavy
Slumber
Half
Bird
Awakened
Body
Close
Sought
Along
Midnight
Side
Shore

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As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented.
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I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.
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The only sin in the world is ignorance.
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I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.
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Some simple dishes recommend themselves to our imaginations as well as palates.
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It is the stars as not yet known to science that I would know, the stars which the lonely traveler knows.
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I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
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It will always be found that one flourishing institution exists and battens on another mouldering one. The Present itself is parasitic to this extent.
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Give me a Wildness whose glance no civilization can endure.
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The experience of every past moment but belies the faith of each present.
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When I would re-create myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most interminable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter as a sacred place, a Sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature.
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It is strange to talk of miracles, revelations, inspiration, and the like, as things past, while love remains.
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Translate a book a dozen times from one language to another, and what becomes of its style? Most books would be worn out and disappear in this ordeal. The pen which wrote it is soon destroyed, but the poem survives.
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Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and Spring.
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I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
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Look not to legislatures and churches for your guidance, nor to any soulless incorporated bodies, but to inspirited or inspired ones.
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Being is the great explainer.
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All expression of truth does at length take this deep ethical form.
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The thinnest yellow light of November is more warming and exhilarating than any wine they tell of. The mite which November contributes becomes equal in value to the bounty of July.
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