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?

From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality.

Time is like a handful of sand - the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers.

A true account of the actual is the rarest poetry, for common sense always takes a hasty and superficial view.

I thrive best on solitude. If I have had a companion only one day in a week, unless it were one or two I could name, I find that the value of the week to me has been seriously affected. It dissipates my days, and often it takes me another week to get over it.

The prosaic man sees things badly, or with the bodily sense; but the poet sees them clad in beauty, with the spiritual sense.

There is no ill which may not be dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.