A wilderness of books
This vast languishing resource was first brought home to me in Erik Reinert’s How Rich Countries Got Rich … and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, which highlighted a lemming-level of group-think compounded by ignorance of an entire ‘other canon’ of...
Of facts and poetry
Having also tried various neat distinctions which inevitably crumble in the face of precise examples that don’t fit, I liked Thoreau’s conclusion that a ‘beautiful fact’ can’t easily be excluded from a notebook on poetry. For similar...
Wait your turn!
This observation of a family of swallows over 150 years ago struck me, along with another surprising tale by Thoreau. Apart from the impressive behaviour of the birds on both counts, in reading these immediate, living accounts, I wonder whether Thoreau had any idea...
Airborne support
This touching account in Thoreau’s journal has a swallow, injured by a shot from a gun, being given airborne support by another swallow. The duly contrite swallow-sniper thereafter showed reverence towards these lovely small birds. I hope the injured one...
Intimate and familiar
A striking idea, that in being true, a book will feel intimate and familiar to all men. ‘True’ surely means authentic rather than fact-based. Some books feel intimate and familiar to some people, not all, and there is value in that too. It is probably...
Feeding & reading: nuts vs apples
Thoreau’s observation on the pitfalls of eating nuts. However, the upside, as far as I gather, is that nuts are packed with brain-food. ‘It is quite too absorbing; you can’t read at the same time, as when you are eating an apple.’ Source:...
Writing time and speeding clocks
Any absorbing activity has this magical effect of taking you almost outside of time, until you look at the clock and feel as if it’s speeded ahead. It seemed appropriate to share this after we have put the clocks forward for summer. ‘Time never passes so...
Of the unspoken
A short and thoughtful statement. He doesn’t elaborate and it is hard to know what drew him to this conclusion. Given how much religion is spoken, it’s an interesting comment. ‘What is religion? That which is never spoken.’ 18 August 1858...
Wrong by a jugful
A charming way to say that someone is seriously wrong – not right by a jugful. I will try to slip this into my daily speech and see if anyone notices. ‘… he says that his account is not right by a jugful, that he does not come within half a mile of...
Studying the ways of men
So that’s the secret of the fox’s cunning – they hide out of sight and study us! Thoreau has dozens of these tiny observations about animals.See also Mervyn Peake’s foxy simile.’Farmer said yesterday that he thought foxes did not live so...
The past as a concertina of time
I collect comments on and perceptions of time. This one is striking and I am as guilty of it as anybody. While we allow significant differences between recent centuries (the 18th century being Very Different from the 20th) we readily assume that the world of 100 AD...
That grand old poem called Winter
To celebrate the winter solstice, a few crisp quotations. I loved Thoreau’s description of winter as an epic in blank verse, and his words are themselves a grand old poem. Enjoy. ‘That grand old poem called Winter … What a poem! an epic in blank...
