| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
| |
| |
| NUMBER: | 60963 |
| QUOTATION: | There is a certain class of unbelievers who sometimes ask me such questions as, if I think that I can live on vegetable food alone; and to strike at the root of the matter at once,—for the root is faith,—I am accustomed to answer such, that I can live on board nails. If they cannot understand that, they cannot understand much that I have to say. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Walden (1854), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 2, p. 72, Houghton Mifflin (1906). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| |
| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
