It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village; to make any progress between his door and his gate.

Commonly men will only be brave as their fathers were brave, or timid.

For the most part, the best man's spirit makes a fearful sprite to haunt his grave.

There is no doubt that the loftiest written wisdom is either rhymed or in some way musically measured,--is, in form as well as substance, poetry; and a volume which should contain the condensed wisdom of mankind need not have one rhythmless line.

Spring. March fans it, April christens it, and May puts on its jacket and trousers.

A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.

The man who does not betake himself at once and desperately to sawing is called a loafer, though he may be knocking at the doors of heaven all the while.