But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions.

Books are for the most part willfully and hastily written, as parts of a system to supply a want real or imagined.

One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in.

A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet's life. It is what hehas become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist. His true work will not stand in any prince's gallery.