Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, which in others are luxuries merely and in others still are entirely unknown.

It would be no reproach to a philosopher, that he knew the future better than the past, or even than the present. It is better worth knowing.

I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society.

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?

We inspire friendship in men when we have contracted friendship with the gods.

Love is no individual's experience; and though we are imperfect mediums, it does not partake of our imperfection; though we are finite, it is infinite and eternal.

It [is of] some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessities of life.