If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him.

You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?

Thus was my first year's life in the woods completed; and the second year was similar to it. I finally left Walden September 6th,1847.

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

To the sick, indeed, nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health.

How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and darkness did not come to restore the drooping world. As the shades begin to gather around us, our primeval instincts are aroused, and we steal forth from our lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in search of those silent and brooding thoughts which are the natural prey of the intellect.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.