Simplicity is the peak of civilization.

Perfect alchemists I keep who can transmute substances without end, and thus the corner of my garden is an inexhaustible treasure-chest. Here you can dig, not gold, but the value which gold merely represents; and there is no Signor Blitz about it.

Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful.

The only wealth is life.

The Grecian are youthful and erring and fallen gods, with the vices of men, but in many important respects essentially of the divine race.

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

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.