If You Would Make Acquaintance With The Ferns

From the journals of Henry David Thoreau:

October 4,1859/

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
I do not get nearer by a hair's breadth to any natural object so long as I presume that I have an introduction to it from some learned man.
To conceive of it with a total apprehension I must for the thousandth time approach it as something totally strange.
If you would make acquaintance with the ferns you must forget your botany.