When the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him... a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

The oldest, wisest politician grows not more human so, but is merely a gray wharf rat at last.

If I ever see more clearly at one time than at another, the medium through which I see is clearer.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

I don't like the city better, the more I see it, but worse. I am ashamed of my eyes that behold it. It is a thousand times meanerthan I could have imagined.... The pigs in the street are the most respectable part of the population.