Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies-neighbors are kind enough for that-but to do the like office to our spirits.

Decay and disease are often beautiful, like the pearly tear of the shellfish and the hectic glow of consumption.

What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time,--the eternal laws!

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

The echo is, to some extent, an original sound, and therein is the magic and charm of it. It is not merely a repetition of what was worth repeating in the bell, but partly the voice of the wood; the same trivial words and notes sung by a wood-nymph.