I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake,I pray?

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!

In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.

I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is madeand at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.

It is one of the signs of the times. We confess that we have risen from reading this book with enlarged ideas, and grander conceptions of our duties in this world. It did expand us a little.

A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.