What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.

What an admirable training is science for the more active warfare of life! Indeed, the unchallenged bravery which these studies imply, is far more impressive than the trumpeted valor of the warrior.

In the summer we lay up a stock of experiences for the winter, as the squirrel of nuts?something for conversation in winter evenings.

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him.

The perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.

Whatever has not come under the sway of man is wild. In this sense original and independent men are wild - not tamed and broken by society.