Yet I experienced sometimes that the most sweet and tender, the most innocent and encouraging society may be found in any naturalobject, even for the poor misanthrope and most melancholy man. There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his senses still.

Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! The actual world! The common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we?

I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government

There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know.

You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

We find it difficult to choose our direction because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea.