Reading Henry David Thoreau’s journals this past summer, we liked the wit of his following entry of August 5, 1851, at age 34:
One sentence of perennial poetry would make me forget, would atone for, volumes of mere science. The astronomer is as blind to the significant phenomena, or the significance of phenomena, as the wood-sawyer who wears glasses to defend his eyes from sawdust. The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
(Quoted from page 65 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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