How wholesome winter is, seen far or near; how good, above all mere sentimental, warm-blooded, short-lived, soft-hearted, moral goodness, commonly so called. Give me the goodness which has forgotten its own deeds,—which God has seen to be good, and let be.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Letter, November 4, 1860, to Harrison Blake, in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 6, pp. 372-373, Houghton Mifflin (1906).