We need the tonic of wildness.

Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man.

The poet is blithe and cheery ever, and as well as nature.

If Columbus was the first to discover the islands, Americus Vespucius and Cabot, and the Puritans, and we their descendants, havediscovered only the shores of America.

The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living.