11.15.2007

Thoreau's Journal: 15-Nov-1853

After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

150 some years later and Thoreau is still right on the money, which speaks sadly for our species.

And is anyone ever going to get rid of that statue of HDT at Walden Pond by his cabin? The man has already been quoted that he would never want an actual statue made of him.

I asked before here and only got a lame, tepid response. Just more evidence there are so few Thoreaus in this world.