A Year in the Maine Woods (1995)

• I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing — to be sharp, yet open.
  • Wondering how golden-crowned kinglets, who eat insects from open branches, survive the Maine winters, in "December 11 : Wind", p. 150

• Conditions are seldom ideal, and if one waits long enough for ideal conditions one is just making excuses.
  • "December 11 : Wind", p. 152