Henry David Thoreau Quotes
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Resistance to Civil Government." Æsthetic Papers, edited by Elizabeth P. Peabody, The Editor, 1849, p. 201.
In the early 20th century, Heinz’s food company had remarkably high standards of cleanliness, health and safety. It as a time where his competition was not other food manufacturers but the vast fear of Americans that packaged food could not be trusted to be safe, much less healthy was what hampered sales. When Theodore Roosevelt introduced the concept of Federal food safety regulation, every major food company was vehemently opposed except for Heinz who claimed that the greatest beneficiary of Federal inspection would be the commercial food industry. He was right, but ironically Heinz was an example of the company that did not need Federal regulation to meet reasonable standards of public safety.
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.