Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v7.djvu/201

1840] Knavery is more foolish than folly, for that, half knowing its own foolishness, it still persists. The knave has reduced folly to a system, is the prudent, common-sense fool. The witling has the simplicity and directness of genius, is the inspired fool. His incomprehensible ravings become the creed of the dishonest of a succeeding era.

Feb. 13. An act of integrity is to an act of duty what the French verb être is to devoir. Duty is ce que devrait être. Duty belongs to the understanding, but genius is not dutiful, the highest talent is dutiful. Goodness results from the wisest use of talent.

The perfect man has both genius and talent. The one is his head, the other his foot; by one he is, by the other he lives. The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God, the end of the world.

The very thrills of genius are disorganizing. The body is never quite acclimated to its atmosphere, but how often succumbs and goes into a decline! Feb. 14. Beauty lives by rhymes. Double a deform ity is a beauty. Draw this blunt quill over the paper, and fold it once transversely to the line, pressing it sud denly before the ink dries, and a delicately shaded and regular figure is the result, which art cannot surpass.