I was not born to be forced.

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. [It allows you to] be the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark of your own streams and oceans; [to] explore your own higher latitudes; [to] be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.

Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower into a truth.

Thus men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.

In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes.

Let the beautiful laws prevail. Let us not weary ourselves by resisting them.

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.