What is commonly called friendship is only a little more honor among rogues.

Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.

Unless we do more than simply learn the trade of our time, we are but apprentices, and not yet masters of the art of life.

To him whom contemplates a trait of natural beauty, no harm nor despair can come. The doctrines of despair, spiritual or political servitude, were never taught by those who shared the serenity of Nature. For each phase of Nature, though not invisible, is yet not too distinct or obtrusive. It is there to be found when we look for it, but not too demanding of our attention.

So far as my experience goes, travelers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way. Like most evil, the difficulty is imaginary; for what's the hurry?

It would seem as if the very language of our parlors would lose all its nerve and degenerate into palaver wholly, our lives pass at such remoteness from its symbols, and its metaphors and tropes are necessarily so far fetched.

Be resolutely and faithfully what you are; be humbly what you aspire to be.