In the first chapter of Walden Thoreau writes:
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved endIt's a nice turn of phrase, which is probably why it frequently gets quoted. It turns out, however, that Thoreau wasn't the most sociable person, and perhaps what was "unimproved" for him would be viewed by others in a more positive light. That snippet, for instance is part of the same paragraph with another oft-quoted Thoreau comment:
We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.It seems to me that one of the things we learned, years ago, from online discussion forums, is that sometimes, and not too infrequently, people in Maine and people in Texas discover that they actually do have important issues about which they can communicate.