The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild, and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World

It would be no reproach to a philosopher, that he knew the future better than the past, or even than the present. It is better worth knowing.

Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

That is a pathetic inquiry among travelers and geographers after the site of ancient Troy. It is not near where they think it is.When a thing is decayed and gone, how indistinct must be the place it occupied!

Everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use.

Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them - that it was a vain endeavor?

Every man is entitled to come to Cattle-Show, even a transcendentalist; and for my part I am more interested in the men than in the cattle.