The life of a wise man is most of all extemporaneous, for he lives out of an eternity which includes all time.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.

We are acquainted with a mere pellicle of the globe on which we live. Most have not delved six feet beneath the surface, nor leaped as many above it. We know not where we are. Beside, we are sound asleep nearly half our time.

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense.

As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct.