There is on the earth no institution which Friendship has established; it is not taught by any religion
 Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). copy citation

Context

“In the ocean’s sullen roar From some distant port he hears, Of wrecks upon a distant shore, And the ventures of past years. Who does not walk on the plain as amid the columns of Tadmore of the desert? There is on the earth no institution which Friendship has established; it is not taught by any religion; no scripture contains its maxims. It has no temple, nor even a solitary column. There goes a rumor that the earth is inhabited, but the shipwrecked mariner has not seen a footprint on the shore. The hunter has found only fragments of pottery and the monuments of inhabitants.” source