Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners?

Nature refuses to sympathize with our sorrow. She seems not to have provided for, but by a thousand contrivances against it.

Most people dread finding out when they come to die that they have never really lived.

For if we take the ages into our account, may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as men?

Your religion is where your love is.

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

This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.