A gun will give you the body, not the bird

I wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not truly lived.

I could lecture on dry oak leaves; I could, but who would hear me? If I were to try it on any large audience, I fear it would be no gain to them, and a positive loss to me. I should have behaved rudely toward my rustling friends.

There is more of good nature than of good sense at the bottom of most marriages.

That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country's champion, the Moore of Moore Hall, to meet him at the Deep Cut and thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest?

Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.

A man may travel fast enough and earn his living on the road.