How often it happens that the traveller's principal distinction is that he is one who knows less about a country than a native! Now if he should begin with all the knowledge of a native, and add thereto the knowledge of a traveller, both natives and foreigners would be obliged to read his book; and the world would be absolutely benefited. It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village; to make any progress between his door and his gate.
I am, perchance, most and most profitably interested in the things which I already know a little about; I wish to get a clearer notion of what I have already some inkling.
The traveller's principal distinction is that he is one who knows less about a country than a native! ... See August 20, 1851 ("A traveller who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed. ") April 16, 1852 ("Many a foreigner who has come to this town has worked for years on its banks without discovering which way the river runs.")
It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country. See September 7, 1851 ("The discoveries which we make abroad are special and particular; those which we make at home are general and significant. The further off, the nearer the surface. The nearer home, the deeper.")
The things which I already know a little about. See January 5, 1860 ("A man receives only what he is ready to receive. His observations make a chain. He does not observe the phenomenon that cannot be linked with the rest which he has observed, however novel and remarkable it may be. A man tracks himself through life, apprehending only what he already half knows.”); November 4, 1858 ("We cannot see any thing until we are possessed with the idea of it.”).
August 6. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 6
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau"A book, each page written in its own season,out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021
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