The earth I tread on is not a dead inert mass. It is a body, has a spirit; is organic and fluid to the influence of its spirit and to whatever particle of the spirit is in me.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.

If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.

The whole of the day should not be daytime; there should be one hour, if not more, which the day did not bring forth.

But the impressions which the morning makes vanish with its dews, and not even the most "persevering mortal" can preserve the memory of its freshness to midday.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in.