I grow savager and savager every day, as if fed on raw meat, and my tameness is only the repose of untamableness. I dream of looking abroad summer and winter, with free gaze, from some mountain-side,... to be nature looking into nature with such easy sympathy as the blue-eyed grass in the meadow looks in the face of the sky. From some such recess I would put forth sublime thoughts daily, as the plant puts forth leaves.

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always. The conscience really does not, and ought not to monopolizethe whole of our lives, any more than the heart or the head. It is as liable to disease as any other part.

The music of all creatures has to do with their loves, even of toads and frogs. Is it not the same with man?

Whatever is, and is not ashamed to be, is good.

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

Commonly men will only be brave as their fathers were brave, or timid.