I keep a mountain anchored off eastward a little way, which I ascend in my dreams both awake and asleep. Its broad base spreads over a village or two, which does not know it; neither does it know them, nor do I when I ascend it. I can see its general outline as plainly now in my mind as that of Wachusett. I do not invent in the least, but state exactly what I see. I find that I go up it when I am light-footed and earnest. It ever smokes like an altar with its sacrifice. I am not aware that a single villager frequents it or knows of it. I keep this mountain to ride instead of a horse.

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

Nature, even when she is scant and thin outwardly, satisfies us still by the assurance of a certain generosity at the roots.

The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought which is to be referred to lunar influence.

A healthy man, with steady employment, as wood-chopping at fifty cents a cord, and a camp in the woods, will not be a good subjectfor Christianity. The New Testament may be a choice book to him on some, but not on all or most of his days. He will rather go a-fishing in his leisure hours. The Apostles, though they were fishers too, were of the solemn race of sea-fishers, and never trolled for pickerel on inland streams.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.