Love does not analyze its object.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.

As for men, they will hardly fail one anywhere. I had more visitors while I lived in the woods than at any other period of my life; I mean that I had some.

The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.

Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly towards an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them,--that it was a vain endeavor?

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.