I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success. What we do best or most perfectly is what we have most thoroughly learned by the longest practice, and at length it falls from us without our notice, as a leaf from a tree.

Most men, it seems to me, do not care for Nature and would sell their share in all her beauty, as long as they may live, for a stated sum - many for a glass of rum. Thank God, men cannot as yet fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!

I learned what it is to live in the open air, and I learned that our lives are domestic in more sense than we think.

Duty is one and invariable; it requires no impossibilities, nor can it ever be disregarded with impunity.

Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.