The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

It often happens that a man develops a deeper love and friendship with his pet cat or dog than he does with most of the other humans in his life.

Sometimes you have to leave the world in order to learn how to live in it. Thoreau shunned society, went to the woods, and came back with a new understanding of life.

The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the hunting-horn to alternate with and relieve the lungs of the dog. This natural bugle long resounded in the woods of the ancient world before the horn was invented.

We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects.

Far travel, very far travel, or travail, comes near to the worth of staying at home.

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.