When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip.

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and Spring.

In most books, the I, of first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference.

He who cuts down woods beyond a certain limit exterminates birds.

You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.

The New Testament is an invaluable book, though I confess to having been slightly prejudiced against it in my very early days by the church and the Sabbath school, so that it seemed, before I read it, to be the yellowest book in the catalogue. Yet I early escaped from their meshes. It was hard to get the commentaries out of one's head and taste its true flavor. [...] It would be a poor story to be prejudiced against the Life of Christ because the book has been edited by Christians.

In solitude especialy do we begin to appreciate the advantage of living with someone who can think.