We never exchange more than three words with a Friend in our lives on that level to which our thoughts and feelings almost habitually rise.

Like speaks to like only; labor to labor, philosophy to philosophy, criticism to criticism, poetry to poetry. Literature speaks how much still to the past, how little to the future, how much to the East, how little to the West.

Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.

What we want is not mainly to colonize Nebraska with free men, but to colonize Massachusetts with free men-to be free ourselves. As the enterprise of a few individuals, that is brave and practical; but as the enterprise of the State, it is cowardice and imbecility. What odds where we squat, or bow much ground we cover? It is not the soil that we would make free, but men.

I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath.

Writing may be either the record of a deed or a deed. It is nobler when it is a deed.

Be sure that you give the poor the aid they most need. If you give money, spend yourself with it, and do not merely abandon it to them. Often the poor man is not cold and hungry as he is dirty and ragged and gross. It is partly his taste, and not merely his misfortune.