The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours ... but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense.

A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.

Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man.

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil, - to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.

It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws.

A gun will give you the body, not the bird