I think it will be found that he who speaks with most authority on a given subject is not ignorant of what has been said by his predecessors. He will take his place in a regular order, and substantially add his own knowledge to the knowledge of previous generations.

Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins.

Such is the never-failing beauty and accuracy of language, the most perfect art in the world; the chisel of a thousand years retouches it.

I have travelled a good deal in Concord.

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.

Of course it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods, if they do not carry us thither. I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit.... What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?