It would surpass the powers of a well man nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise a sick one to lay down his bed and run.

Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion,--as if the short spring days were an eternity.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Do not read the newspapers.

We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.

What is man but a mass of thawing clay?

There are two classes of men called poets. The one cultivates life, the other art,... one satisfies hunger, the other gratifies the palate.