It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.

Only the defeated and deserters go to war.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

Exaggeration! was ever any virtue attributed to a man without exaggeration? was ever any vice, without infinite exaggeration? Do we not exaggerate ourselves to ourselves, or do we recognize ourselves for the actual men we are? Are we not all great men? Yet what are we actually, to speak of? We live by exaggeration.

When it was proposed to me to go abroad, rub oft some rust, and better my condition in a worldly sense, I fear lest my life will lose some of its homeliness. If these fields and streams and woods, the phenomena of nature here, and the simple occupations of the inhabitants should cease to interest and inspire me, no culture or wealth would atone for the loss.