There is some of the same fitness in a man's building his own house that there is in a bird's building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed… - Henry David Thoreau

There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest.

I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture anywhere, — for I have had a little experience in that business, — that there is a desire to hear what I think on some subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country, — and not that I should say pleasant things merely, or such as the audience will assent to; and I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent.

In the spring I burned over a hundred acres till the earth was sere and black, and by midsummer this space was clad in a fresher and more luxuriant green than the surrounding even. Shall man then despair? Is he not a sprout-land too, after never so many searings and witherings?

All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere.