...all nature is perverse & will not do as I wish it.

As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

We behold the face of nature bright with gladness.

It is like confessing to a murder.

As the sense of smell is so intimately connected with that of taste, it is not surprising that an excessively bad odour should excite wretching or vomitting in some persons.

Progress has been much more general than retrogression