A man may esteem himself happy when that which is his food is also his medicine.

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is - I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

The biggest happiness is when at the end of the year you feel better than at the beginning

What wealth is it to have such friends that we cannot think of them without elevation!

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

The question is whether you can bear freedom. At present the vast majority of men, whether white or black, require the discipline of labor which enslaves them for their own good.

Not till we are completely lost, or turned round, do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature.