Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world.

For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.

The best poets, after all, exhibit only a tame and civil side of nature. They have not seen the west side of any mountain.

I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way.

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

A bore is someone who takes away my solitude and doesn't give me companionship in return.

The fishermen say that the "thundering of the pond" scares the fishes and prevents their biting.