I wished only to be set down in Canada, and take one honest walk there as I might in Concord woods of an afternoon.

If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.

All endeavour calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil.

The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants.

Have you not budged an inch, then? Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere.... We should wash ourselves clean of such news. Of what consequence, though our planet explode, if there is no character involved in the explosion? In health we have not the least curiosity about such events. We do not live for idle amusement. I would not run round a corner to see the world blow up.

Everything that is printed and bound in a book contains some echo at least of the best that is in literature.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.