Some interests have got a footing on the earth which we have not made sufficient allowance for.

I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me tobe doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.... The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.

To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives? - and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared to live more worthily and profitably?

Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.

Much is published, but little printed.

What is sour in the house a bracing walk in the woods makes sweet.

All the past is here, present to be tried; let it approve itself if it can.