I would stand upon facts.

In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.

You cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you.

How full of the creative genius is the air in which these [snowflakes] are generated! I should hardly admire them more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius. Full of the divinity. So that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

Nature is slow, but sure; she works no faster than need be; she is the tortoise that wins the race by her perseverance.

You must get your living by loving, or at least half your life is a failure.