It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador a greater wildness than in some recess of Concord.

There is an orientalism in the most restless pioneer, and the farthest west is but the farthest east.

I would remind my countrymen that they are to be men first, and Americans only at a late and convenient hour.

The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.

The pleasures of the intellect are permanent, the pleasures of the heart are transitory.

For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.

I am very little of a traveler.