One can hardly imagine a more healthful employment, or one more favorable to contemplation and the observation of nature.

I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for.

It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.

That is a pathetic inquiry among travelers and geographers after the site of ancient Troy. It is not near where they think it is.When a thing is decayed and gone, how indistinct must be the place it occupied!

The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening.

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.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.