Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks, the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.

I have never met with a friend who furnished me sea-room. I have only tacked a few times and come to anchor - not sailed - made no voyage, carried no venture.

If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I may be mistaken.

An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not.

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter

Tradition is a more interrupted and feebler memory.