Thoreau had never quarreled with God

Following a typical late-night excursion to count the rings on tree stumps during a rainy night, Thoreau contracted bronchitis. His health declined over the next three years and he seems to have been fully aware that his end was nigh and calmly accepted death. When asked if he had made his peace with God, he replied, ‘I did not know we had ever quarreled.’ He died at the age of forty-four and there is but one word written on his grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts: ‘Henry’.

Saved 9 April 2015

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