An evening with Thoreau

For Christmas I had asked Harriet for a book by Henry Thoreau who is an American naturalist and philosopher from the mid 1800's ... I received from her a copy of Walden chronicling his 2 years living in the rural woods mostly solitary. I read the book quickly and enjoyed many aspects of it. Coincidentally, there was a play performed about it this past weekend and I went on Friday (Feb 1st). Among more famous quotes are:
- "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life …"; and
-“There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of Nature and has his senses still … 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 … The indescribable innocence and beneficence of Nature, - of sun and wind and rain, of summer and winter, - such health, such cheer, they afford forever! … For my panacea, instead of one of those quack vials … let me have a draught of undiluted morning air.”