Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

As I love nature, as I love singing birds...I love thee, my friend.

Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

This is one of those instances in which the individual genius is found to consent, as indeed it always does, at last, with the universal.

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.

Faint heart never won true friend. O my friend, may it come to pass, once, that when you are my friend I may be yours.

As a man grows older, his ability to sit still and follow indoor occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his habits as theevening of life approaches, till at last he comes forth only just before sundown, and gets all the walk that he requires in half an hour.