There never is but one opportunity of a kind.

Our thoughts are epochs in our lives; all else is but as a journal of the winds that blow while we are here.

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke strops our vice.

I have heard a good many pretend that they are going to die; or that they have died, for aught that I know. Nonsense! I'll defy them to do it. They have n't got life enough in them.... Only half a dozen or so have died since the world began.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.

Ah! I need solitude. I have come forth to this hill at sunset to see the forms of the mountains in the horizon - to behold and commune with something grander than man. Their mere distance and unprofanedness is an infinite encouragement. it is with infinite yearning and aspiration that I seek solitude, more and more resolved and strong; but with a certain weakness that I seek society ever.

This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.