To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

The eye may see for the hand, but not for the mind.

I wished only to be set down in Canada, and take one honest walk there as I might in Concord woods of an afternoon.

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature.

What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life.

If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there arenight owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.

There is a certain perfection in accident which we never consciously attain.