Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted,but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.

Great God, I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself, That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye.

The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in.

The meeting of two eternities, the past and future....is precisely the present moment.