On this day in 1862, Henry David Thoreau died of tuberculosis. His last clear words were: "Now comes good sailing," and then "moose" and "Indian."

His conclusion to Walden also uses a sailing metaphor:

"It is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.... It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar."

For a quick online walk-with-Henry Walden memory, click here. To download the full text, click here.

Oh, alright, one more sailing quote:

"It is generally supposed that they who have long been conversant with the ocean can foretell, by certain indications, such as its roar and the notes of sea-fowl, when it will change from calm to storm; but probably no such ancient mariner as we dream of exists; they know no more, at least, than the older sailors do about this voyage of life on which we are all embarked. Nevertheless, we love to hear the sayings of old sailors, and their accounts of natural phenomena which totally ignore, and are ignored by, science; and possibly they have not always looked over the gunwale so long in vain."

Henry David Thoreau; Cape Cod (1855-1865), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 4.

Photo: Courtesy of the Library of Congress.