“With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan”

— Henry David Thoreau , book Life Without Principle

Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan, — mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards, — because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth, — because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufactures and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end.

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Henry David Thoreau 385

1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitio… 1817–1862

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“With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan”

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Henry David Thoreau 385

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