If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too.

You must ascend a mountain to learn your relation to matter, and so to your own body, for it is at home there, though you are not.

Our actual Friends are but distant relations of those to whom we are pledged.

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known.

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

I suppose that the great questions of "Fate, Freewill, Foreknowledge Absolute," which used to be discussed at Concord, are still unsettled.