The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive.

Nature is full of genius, full of divinity.

Long enough I had heard of irrelevant things; now at length I was glad to make acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten wood. Where is all your knowledge gone to? It evaporates completely, for it has no depth.

Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world.

This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work.

As the stars looked to me when I was a shepherd in Assyria, they look to me now as a New-Englander.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.