Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.

I had a classmate who fitted for college by the lamps of a lighthouse, which was more light, we think, than the University afforded.

Remember that the smallest seed of faith is of more worth than the largest fruit of happiness.

Still we live meanly like ants, though the fable tells us we were long ago changed into men.

Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children. Consider the silent influencewhich flowers exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.