This life we live is a strange dream, and I don't believe at all any account men give of it.

In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.

That government is best which governs least.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours ... but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.

Thus men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up.

It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.