A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild-flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East. Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning’s flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself--and not a taper lighted at the hearthstone of the race, which pales before the light of common day. Henry David Thoreau
About This Quote

William James was a philosopher and psychologist. In his book "A Pluralistic Universe" he describes the world as being multi-dimensional. In other words, this world has many levels of reality. William James believed that the mind is not just a single thing that exists within a single human body, but instead is made up of many things, such as emotions, intellect and imagination.

This means that there are many senses and ways of perceiving our world. When we open our eyes every morning, we see the world through these various senses. This is why a truly good book is something as natural as a wild-flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East.

Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning’s flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself--and not a taper lighted at the hearthstone of the race, which pales before the light of common day.

Source: Walking

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. - Elbert Hubbard
  2. The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends. - Friedrich Nietzsche
  3. Ur be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things I'd been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne. Three be the... - Dorothy Parker
  4. The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. - Meister Eckhart
  5. Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.] - Gautama Buddha
More Quotes By Henry David Thoreau
  1. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed...
  2. I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours..
  3. The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
  4. It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.
  5. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Related Topics