When the chopper would praise a pine, he will commonly tell you that the one he cut was so big that a yoke of oxen stood on its stump; as if that were what the pine had grown for, to become the footstool of oxen.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.

I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men in herds for all them.

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil, - to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.

The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor to get between you and themselves.

That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline.