numberfive[5]

Henry David Thoreau Quotes

"'Here,' I exclaimed, 'stood Tahatawan; and there, is Tahatawan's arrowhead."
This quote is about what is possible with goals. Tahatawan crafted his arrowhead with his own hands. He put a lot of time and effort into making that single arrowhead his own. When one looks at Tahatawan's arrowhead, they see it is different from the rest. It is itself, but it is also Tahatawan. Further effort went to fasten the arrowhead to a shaft and even further to actually shoot the arrow. The arrowhead went from any flat rock to a human and then to beyond that. It reached a goal. As Tahatawan shot that particular arrow he envisioned where it was to go. Whether it reached its target or not it went somewhere and the effort was hardly wasted.

"The sail bends gently to the breeze, as swells some generous impulse of the heart..."
This also ties into the connection between man and what he can accomplish, although this quote is more so about what he cannot. The sail is a man-made object. The sail welcomes the breeze and they work together towards their chosen goal of pushing the boat onward. These two forces work together in transperant agreement and they have no difficulty between one another. The irony is that the one who created the sail is man. What man creates can produce more than man himself. While the sail works together with the wind, man ignores it, and cannot harvest the potential power as the sail can yet still wonders why. Looking into oneself is a great method of learning but looking around at everything around you can be extremely useful as well. The sail is awake, but the man sleeps on.