To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

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

Unless the human race perspire more than I do, there is no occasion to live by the sweat of their brow. If men cannot get on without money (the smallest amount will suffice), the truest method of earning it is by working as a laborer at one dollar per day. You are least dependent so; I speak as an expert, having used several kinds of labor.

The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard.

Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.

Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?