If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.

If within the sophisticated man there is not an unsophisticated one, then he is but one of the devil's angels.

In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to.

There is a higher law affecting our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man.

The boatmen appeared to lead an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer their employment ourselves to many professions which are much more sought after. They suggested how few circumstances are necessary to the well-being and serenity of man, how indifferent all employments are, and that any may seem noble and poetic to the eyes of men, if pursued with sufficient buoyancy and freedom.

Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl: it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.