Archive for the ‘Walden’ Tag
Sonoran Desert Yellow Trumpet Flower — Image by kenne
No man ever followed his genius till it misled him.
Though the result were bodily weakness,
yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted,
for these were a life in conformity to higher principles.
If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy,
and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs,
is more elastic, more starry, more immortal, … That is your success.
All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.
The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated.
We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them.
They are the highest reality. … The true harvest of my daily life
is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening.
It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.
— from Walden or Life in the Woods — Where I Lived, and What I Lived For by Henry David Thoreau
Cabin In The Woods (One of the older cabins on Mount Lemmon.)– Image by kenne
“When I came to build my chimney I studied masonry. My bricks being second-hand ones required to be cleaned with a trowel, so that I learned more than usual of the qualities of bricks and trowels… I filled the spaces between the bricks about the fireplace with stones from the pond shore, and also made my mortar with the white sand from the same place… Indeed I worked so deliberately, that though I commenced at the ground in the morning, a course of bricks raised a few inches above the floor served for my pillow at night… I was so pleased to see my work rising so square and solid by degrees, and reflected, that, if it proceeded slowly, it was calculated to endure a long time. The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground and rising through the house to the heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent.”
— “House Warming,” from Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden.
