Find your eternity in each moment.

April 24.

There is a season for everything, and we do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season, if, indeed, it can be called the same phenomenon at any other season.

There is a time to watch the ripples on Ripple Lake, to look for arrowheads, to study the rocks and lichens, a time to walk on sandy deserts; and the observer of nature must improve these seasons as much as the farmer his. So boys fly kites and play ball or hawkie at particular times all over the State. A wise man will know what game to play to-day, and play it.

We must not be governed by rigid rules, as by the almanac, but let the season rule us.

The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as steadily and incessantly as nature's.

Nothing must be postponed. Take time by the forelock. Now or never! 

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land.

There is no other land; there is no other life but this, or the like of this.

Where the good husbandman is, there is the good soil.

Take any other course, and life will be a succession of regrets.

Let us see vessels sailing prosperously before the wind, and not simply stranded barks. There is no world for the penitent and regretful.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, April 24, 1859


Man's moods and thoughts revolve just as steadily and incessantly as nature's. The observer of nature must improve these seasons. 

A wise man will know what game to play to-day, and play it. There is a time to watch the ripples on Ripple Lake, to look for arrowheads, to study the rocks and lichens, a time to walk on sandy deserts. There is a season for everything.

Let the season rule us. Let us be vessels sailing prosperously before the wind. There is no other life but this, or the like of this. Nothing must be postponed.

Launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Live in the present. On any other course life is a succession of regrets.

We do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season. See November 3, 1853 ("There are very few phenomena which can be described indifferently as occurring at different seasons of the year, for they will occur with some essential difference.”);  May 23, 1841 ("All nature is a new impression every instant")

Let the season rule us. See August 23, 1853 ("Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit . . . Grow green with spring, yellow and ripe with autumn. Drink of each season's influence as a vial, a true panacea of all remedies . . .For all Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well.“)

You must live in the present,  See January 7, 1851(“There is no account of the blue sky in history. I must live above all in the present.”)

Find your eternity in each moment. A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, As the Seasons Revolve; A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, There was an artist in the City of Kouroo

There is a season for everything, and we do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season, if, indeed, it can be called the same phenomenon at any other season. There is a time to watch the ripples on Ripple Lake, to look for arrowheads, to study the rocks and lichens, a time to walk on sandy deserts; and the observer of nature must improve these seasons as much as the farmer his. So boys fly kites and play ball or hawkie at particular times all over the State. A wise man will know what game to play to-day, and play it. We must not be governed by rigid rules, as by the almanac, but let the season rule us. The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as steadily and incessantly as nature's. Nothing must be postponed. Take time by the forelock. Now or never! You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this, or the like of this. Where the good husbandman is, there is the good soil. Take any other course, and life will be a succession of regrets. Let us see vessels sailing prosperously before the wind, and not simply stranded barks. There is no world for the penitent and regretful.