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

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion.

I realized a school doesn't need a School Committee or Trustees or Governors or lumber or approved textbooks. All a school needs is a mind that sends and minds that receive. I shall teach my own students how to teach themselves. My own school. No buildings. Break out of the classroom prison. All I need is SKY. The Universe can be my classroom - the great vast world of the Concord countryside.

Perchance the time will come when we shall not be content to go back and forth upon a raft to some huge Homeric or Shakespearean Indiaman that lies upon the reef, but build a bark out of that wreck and others that are buried in the sands of this desolate island, and such new timber as may be required, in which to sail away to whole new worlds of light and life, where our friends are.

All expression of truth does at length take this deep ethical form.

How imperceptibly the first springing takes place!

At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house.