It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live.

As for your high towers and monuments, there was a crazy fellow once in this town who undertook to dig through to China, and he got so far that, as he said, he heard the Chinese pots and kettles rattle; but I think that I shall not go out of my way to admire the hole which he made.

I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

Who ever saw his old clothes, - his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

We communicate like the burrows of foxes, in silence and darkness, under ground. We are undermined by faith and love.

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.