QOTD

On Thoreau:

"I believe Thoreau was first and formeost a spiritual man, a prophet in some ways, as from his post there at Walden Pond he foresaw the many challenges that would face mankind if we continued, as we did, at full speed into the industrial age. He had already witnessed men who led lives of quiet desperation as they sought satisfaction and fulfillment in material gains, and he knew this futile effort would only increase as new industry brought more goods to be obtained and more hours were spent working to earn the money to pay for such goods. The instruction from his masterwork, Walden, to 'simplify, simplify' has for 154 years now summed up his message that satisfaction cannot be found in material things and the statement from his essay 'Walking' that 'Wildness is the preservation of the world' reminds us that nature offers us salvation as it stands as a testament to purity and truth, while at the same time it calls us to recognize what is most natural within ... the natural state of man is to Thoreau a spiritual one. This is a theme that is present throughout all of his work. - Cathryn McIntyre