The biggest happiness is when at the end of the year you feel better than at the beginning

A man of fine perceptions is more truly feminine than a merely sentimental woman.

Nature is full of genius, full of divinity.

The meeting of two eternities, the past and future....is precisely the present moment.

I could lecture on dry oak leaves; I could, but who would hear me? If I were to try it on any large audience, I fear it would be no gain to them, and a positive loss to me. I should have behaved rudely toward my rustling friends.

We cannot see anything until we are possessed with the idea of it, take it into our heads,--and then we can hardly see anything else.

Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.