There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. I love a broad margin to my life.

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.

How meanly and grossly do we deal with nature!

It is reasonable that a man should be something worthier at the end of the year than he was at the beginning.

I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.

Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present.

To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions.