What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that practically I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me at all.

He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past

The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house today is not drear and melancholy, but good for me too. Though it prevents my hoeing them, it is of far more worth than my hoeing. If it should continue so long as to cause the seeds to rot in the ground and destroy the potatoes in the low lands, it would still be good for the grass on the uplands, and, being good for the grass, would be good for me, too.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

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

The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the globe reach even to us here, as to more distant dwellers on its banks;many a poet's stream, floating the helms and shields of heroes on its bosom.

Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.