"Concord River is remarkable for the gentleness..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Concord River is remarkable for the gentleness of its current, which is scarcely perceptible, and some have referred to its influence the proverbial moderation of the inhabitants of Concord, as exhibited in the Revolution, and on later occasions.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.”
“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.”
“It becomes the moralist, too, to inquire what man might do to improve and beautify the system; what to make the stars shine more brightly, the sun more cheery and joyous, the moon more placid and content.”
More on Nature
“No two leaves were alike, and yet there is no antagonism between them or between the branches on which they grow.”
“There is nothing more practical than the preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything that appeals to the higher emotions of mankind”
“For the nature of a women is closely allied to art.[Ger., Denn das Naturell der FrauenIst so nah mit Kunst verwandt.]”
More on Influence
“The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.”
“The paradox of the prophet: his very success is his failure. The prophet whose time has come no longer shocks; he entertains.”
“Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion it appears that he has a secret virtue never suspected - that he can paint what has occurred and what must occur, with such clearness to a company, as if they saw it done before their eyes. By leading their thought he leads their will, and can make them do gladly what an hour ago they would not believe that they could be led to do at all.”