Henry David Thoreau
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
Documented source
Attribution
Henry David Thoreau
Source
Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
In full
“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.”
Status
Public domain in the United States
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About this line
A touchstone was the dark stone jewelers used to test gold. Thoreau borrows the image for dreams: not escape, but assay — the truest test of a person is what they reach toward when nothing is at stake and no one is watching.
Why we carry this line
Not until I read about touchstones did I fully understand this quote. For all the dreamers, me included.
Objects carrying this line
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