The laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day.

We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.

I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known.

I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They can only force me who obey a higher law than I.... I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live?

Nothing but great antiquity can make graveyards interesting to me. I have no friends there.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

After all, I believe it is the style of thought entirely, and the style of expression, which makes the difference in books.