It was interesting, when awakened at midnight, to watch the grotesque and fiend-like forms and motions of some one of the party, w...ho, not being able to sleep, had got up silently to arouse the fire.... Thus aroused, I, too, brought fresh fuel to the fire, and then rambled along the sandy shore in the moonlight, hoping to meet a moose come down to drink, or else a wolf. The little rill tinkled the louder, and peopled all the wilderness for me; and the glassy smoothness of the sleeping lake, laving the shores of a new world, with the dark, fantastic rocks rising here and there from its surface, made a scene not easily described. It has left such an impression of stern, yet gentle, wildness on my memory as will not be soon effaced.... When next we awoke, the moon and the stars were shining again, and there were signs of dawn in the east.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens, a substantial part of its whole population, who at this very moment are den...ied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life. I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When I converse with a profound mind, or if at any time being alone I have good thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions..., as when, being thirsty, I drink water, or go to the fire, being cold: no! but I am first apprised of my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. By persisting to read or to think, this region gives further sign of itself, as it were in flashes of light, in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose, as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals, and showed the approaching traveller the inland mountains, with the tranquil eternal meadows spread at their base, whereon flocks graze, and shepherds pipe and dance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in t...he miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be regarded,--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love what is simple and beautiful; independence and cheerful relation, these are the essentials,--these, and the wish to serve,--to add somewhat to the well-being of men.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As it was cold, I collected quite a pile of wood and lay down on a board against the side of the building, not having any blanket ...to cover me, with my head to the fire, that I might look after it, which is not the Indian rule. But as it grew colder towards midnight, I at length encased myself completely in boards, managing even to put a board on top of me, with a large stone on it, to keep it down, and so slept comfortably. I was reminded, it is true, of the Irish children, who inquired what their neighbors did who had no door to put over them in winter nights as they had; but I am convinced that there was nothing very strange in the inquiry. Those who have never tried it can have no idea how far a door, which keeps the single blanket down, may go toward making one comfortable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This Indian camp was a slight, patched-up affair, which had stood there several weeks, built shed-fashion, open to the fire on the... west.... Altogether it was about as savage a sight as was ever witnessed, and I was carried back at once three hundred years.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I was awakened at midnight by some heavy, low-flying bird, probably a loon, flapping by close over my head, along the shore. So, t...urning the other side of my half-clad body to the fire, I sought slumber again.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »