Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious… — Henry David Thoreau

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end... We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

Walden · 1854
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Current citation
Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.
Original citation
Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.