I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.
Source: Journals (1904), entry for 9 Feb 1841.
-- Henry David Thoreau, (Jul 12 1817-1862), US essayist, poet, naturalist; He is best known for his description of life at Walden Pond, Walden, 1854 and his essay Civil Disobedience, 1849.