This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.

There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.

Alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe.

Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.

The truth is, there is money buried everywhere, and you have only to go to work to find it.