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.

It is very rare that you meet with obstacles in this world, which the humblest man has not faculties to surmount.

It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.

What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom?

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants.

I wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not truly lived.