I do not wish to be any more busy with my hands than is necessary.

This generation has come into the world fatally late for some enterprises. Go where we will on the surface of things, men have been there before us.... But the lives of men, though more extended laterally in their range, are still as shallow as ever.

A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.

In the planting of the seeds of most trees, the best gardeners do no more than follow Nature, though they may not know it.

Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them.

There are some things which a man never speaks of, which are much finer kept silent about. To the highest communications we only lend a silent ear.

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.