A Few More Gems

Whilst the previous one was taken from the whole of Throeau's book, Walking, these are all taken from one chapter of Walden. The chapter itself is on solitude. Enjoy.

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I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.

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Sometimes, when I compare myself with other men, it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any deserts that I am conscious of; as if I had a warrant and surety at their hands which my fellows have not, and were especially guided and guarded.

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I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

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For the most part we allow only outlying and transient circumstances to make our occasions. They are, in fact, the cause of our distraction. Nearest to all things is that power which fashions their being. Next to us the grandest laws are continually being executed. Next to us is not the workman whom we have hired, with whom we love so well to talk, but the workman whose work we are.

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I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

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Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another

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The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.

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I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls

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[END]


I was curious to see what would happen if I pasted the whole chapter into Wordle, so I did. This is the result:


(click to see in more detail)