Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wildness,—to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.
Where these words come from
- 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- Walden (1854); Exact wording and attribution checked. Personal and figurative observations on nature, wildness, and the author’s life beside Walden Pond.
- Walden (1854)
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