| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 58974 |
| QUOTATION: | We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave, devout man spend the year in the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak adequately to his condition and experience. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. “A Winter Walk” (1843), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 5, p. 183, Houghton Mifflin (1906). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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