The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of what we do; and yet how much is not done by us!

Even trees do not die without a groan.

I do not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

I do not know how to distinguish between waking life and a dream. Are we not always living the life that we imagine we are?

The heart is forever inexperienced.

I once found a kernel of corn in the middle of a deep wood by Walden, tucked in behind a lichen on a pine, about as high as my head, either by a crow or a squirrel. It was a mile at least from any corn-field.