Some beautiful quotes from Henry David Thoreau  and Basho

Although they lived continents apart  (Thoreau the American and Basho the Japanese),  these two poet-philosophers lived in similar worlds.  They savored and realized the worlds of "simplicity" and "nature" in their own ways and their beautiful writings reflect this.

Man's life must be of equal simplicity and sincerity with nature, and his actions 
harmonize with her grandeur and beauty. -- Thoreau

I want to go soon and live away by the pond, where I shall hear only the wind
whispering among the reeds. It will be a success if I shall have left myself
behind. But my friends ask what I will do when I get there. Will it not be employ-
ment enough to watch the progress of the seasons? -- Thoreau

Occasionally, when I feel energetic, I gather firewood and draw spring water.
I love the drops which fall, tok-tok, along the green of a single spray of fern,
and nothing is so light as my stove. -- Basho

Yield to the willow
all the loathing and all the desire
within your heart.

-- Basho


I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to
practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep
and suck out all the marrow of life. -- Thoreau


The morning wind forever blows;
The poem of the world is uninterrupted, 
but few are the ears that hear it.

-- Thoreau


My solitude shall be my company
and my poverty, my wealth.

-- Basho


The scent of orchids
perfumes the wings
of a butterfly.

-- Basho



I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me
that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that 
one. -- Thoreau



Going nowither; where travelers are not too often to be met; where my spirit is free;
where the walls and fences are not cared for; where your head is more in heaven 
than your feet are on earth. --- Thoreau



When observed calmly,
all things have their fulfillment.

-- Basho



The humblest fungus betrays a life akin to our own.
It is a successful poem in its kind. 

-- Thoreau

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