Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans.

I noticed, as I had done before, that there was a lull among the mosquitoes about midnight, and that they began again in the morning. Nature is thus merciful. But apparently they need rest as well as we.

Doubtless, we are as slow to conceive of Paradise as of Heaven, of a perfect natural as of a perfect spiritual world. We see how past ages have loitered and erred. "Is perhaps our generation free from irrationality and error? Have we perhaps reached now the summit of human wisdom, and need no more to look out for mental or physical improvement?" Undoubtedly, we are never so visionary as to be prepared for what the next hour may bring forth.

What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall?

We do not enjoy poetry unless we know it to be poetry.

There is an orientalism in the most restless pioneer, and the farthest west is but the farthest east.