Unless the human race perspire more than I do, there is no occasion to live by the sweat of their brow. If men cannot get on without money (the smallest amount will suffice), the truest method of earning it is by working as a laborer at one dollar per day. You are least dependent so; I speak as an expert, having used several kinds of labor.

Truth strikes us from behind and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight.

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

Some poems are for holidays only. They are polished and sweet, but it is the sweetness of sugar, and not such as toil gives to sour bread. The breath with which the poet utters his verse must be that by which he lives.

Morning glory is the best name, it always refreshes me to see it.

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit.

How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!