Henry David Thoreau - We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed,...

We are sometimes made aware of a kindness long passed, and realize that there have been times when our friends' thoughts of us were of so pure and lofty a character that they passed over us like the winds of heaven unnoticed when they treated us not as what we were, but as what we aspired to be. From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers