CLASSIC BOOK REVIEW–“Thoreau and the Art of Life” by Roderick MacIver

                                             CLASSIC BOOK REVIEW

                                            “Thoreau and the Art of Life”
                                                  Precepts and Principles
                                                    by Roderick MacIver
                                               Great Drawings by the Author
                                                  isbn-10: 1-933937-13-0
                                                 copyright: Heron Dance

Roderick Maciver: In todays complex & fast-paced world Henry David Thoreau’s words may be even more appropriate and needed & than when he originally wrote them. Largely ignored in his lifetime his books and journals have gained a wide & devoted audience. 

THOREAU believed humanity had embarked upon a path that could only lead to unhappiness, a lack of satisfaction in life that would ultimately lead to self-destruction. 

EVERYTHING worthwhile in life requires love, faith and imagination. All three are mysterious and difficult to put into words.

Henry David Thoreau: The perception of beauty is a moral test.

                                      ART EMERGES OUT OF OUR INNER LIFE.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times and to the latest. 

                                But lo! Men have become the tools of their tools.

                        Rather than love, than money, than fame give me TRUTH.

                It would seem as if nothing good could be accomplished without some vice to aid in it. 

LOVE IS AN ATTEMPT TO CHANGE A PIECE OF A DREAM WORLD INTO REAITY.

        Those of whom we can love , we can hate, to others we are indifferent.

                                   LOVE MUST BE A LIGHT AS WELL AS A FLAME.

          When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times and to the latest.

                  WHO can be serene in a country where both rulers and ruled are without principle?

     ONE IS WISE TO CULTIVATE THE TREE THAT BEARS FRUIT IN OUR SOUL.

A GRAIN OF GOLD WILL GILD A GREAT SURFACE BUT NOT SO MUCH AS A GRAIN OF WISDOM.

    THE WORLD is a world of truth and moral force; the individual’s task is to awaken to that truth and bring it to bear on people’s lives.

               THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS WISDOM NOT APPLIED TO LIFE.

                                       I WAS MADE ERECT AND LONE                                           

                                              I was made erect and lone,
                                             And within me is the bone;
                                              Still my vision will be clear,
                                              Still my life will not be drear,
                                                 To the center all is near,
                                              Where I sit there is my throne.
                                                  If age choose to sit apart,
                                              If age choose, give me the start,
                                              Take the sap and leave the heart.

                                                WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
                                            IT IS CHIEFLY THROUGH BOOKS
                                                  GREAT MEN TALK TO US
                                 GIVE US THEIR MOST PRECIOUS THOUGHTS
                                        AND POUR THEIR SOULS INTO OURS.

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