Henry David Thoreau Quote

I think it would be worth the while to introduce a school of children to such [an oak grove], that they may get an idea of the primitive oaks before they are all gone, instead of hiring botanists to lecture to them when it is too late.

Journal, ed. by B. Torrey, 1837-1846, 1850-Nov. 3, 1861 (ed. 1906)