In most books, the I, of first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference.

A man receives only what he is ready to receive, whether physically or intellectually or morally, as animals conceive at certain seasons their kind only. We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.

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

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of spring.

Everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use.

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.