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.

Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.

Nature is goodness crystallized.

The most primitive places left with us are the swamps, where the spruce still grows shaggy with usnea.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?

Carlyle must undoubtedly plead guilty to the charge of mannerism. He not only has his vein, but his peculiar manner of working it.He has a style which can be imitated, and sometimes is an imitator of himself.