Men have become the tools of their tools.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

The necessity of labor and conversation with many men and things to the scholar is rarely well remembered.

Some have asked if the stock of men could not be improved,--if they could not be bred as cattle. Let Love be purified, and all therest will follow. A pure love is thus, indeed, the panacea for all the ills of the world.

Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green.