When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.

The course of the seasons is a piece of clockwork, with a cuckoo to call when it is spring.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.

To many people virtue consists chiefly in repenting faults, not in avoiding them.

Do not judge God's world from your own. Trim your own hedge as you wish and plant your flowers in the patterns you can understand, but do not judge the garden of nature from your little window box.

One of our forefathers must have read a forbidden book.

Never undertake anything for which you wouldn't have the courage to ask the blessings of heaven.