I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beechtree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

The virtue of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before does not begin to be superhuman.

We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.

For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.