Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the preface,not concluded in the appendix. Even Virgil's poetry serves a very different use to me today from what it did to his contemporaries. It has often an acquired and accidental value merely, proving that man is still man in the world.

Simplicity is the peak of civilization.

What would human life be without forests, those natural cities?

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.

What is religion? That which is never spoken.

I love my friends very much, but I find that it is of no use to go to see them. I hate them commonly when I am near them. They belie themselves and deny me continually.

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.