Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

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

But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.

If we dealt only with the false and dishonest, we should at last forget how to speak truth.

I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice ... While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. He is a different sort of man, that's all.

A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.