"Some poems are for holidays only. They..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“The era of wild apples will soon be over. I wander through old orchards of great extent, now all gone to decay, all of native fruit which for the most part went to the cider mill. But since the temperance reform and the general introduction of grafted fruit, no wild apples, such as I see everywhere in deserted pastures, and where the woods have grown up among them, are set out. I fear that he who walks over these hills a century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples.”

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.”

“I am reminded by my journey how exceedingly new this country still is. You have only to travel for a few days into the interior and back parts even of many of the old States, to come to that very America which the Northmen, and Cabot, and Gosnold, and Smith, and Raleigh visited.”

“... to write well it is entirely necessary to read widely and deeply. Good poems are the best teachers.”

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

“It is vain for the sober man to knock at poesy's door.”

“Never let a day pass without looking at some perfect work of art, hearing some great piece of music and reading, in part, some great book.”

“There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself.”

“No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling.”