Only the defeated and deserters go to war.

Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.

As they say in geology, time never fails, there is always enough of it, so I may say, criticism never fails.

I see less difference between a city and a swamp than formerly.

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

A man's ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful-while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless, besides being ugly.

I was never molested by any person but those who represented the State. I had no lock nor bolt but for the desk which held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day, though I was to be absent several days; not even when the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. And yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers.