Reading Henry David Thoreau’s journals this past summer, we liked the wit of his following entry of September 7, 1851, at age 34:
Sept. 7. We are receiving our portion of the infinite. The art of life! I do not remember any page which will tell me how to spend this afternoon. I do not so much wish to know how to economize time as how to spend it.
The scenery, when it is truly seen, reacts on the life of the seer. How to live. How to get the most life. How to extract its honey from the flower of the world. That is my every-day business. I am as busy as a bee about it. I ramble over all fields on that errand, and am never so happy as when I feel myself heavy with honey and wax. I am like a bee searching the livelong day for the sweets of nature.
(Quoted from page 77 of The Journal: 1837-1861, by Henry David Thoreau, Damion Searls editor, New York Review Books, 2009.)
For a brief biography of Henry David Thoreau, click here. For images of or relating to Henry David Thoreau, click here.
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