Someone calls biography the home aspect of history.

The elms of New England! They are as much a part of her beauty as the columns of the Parthenon were the glory of its architecture.

Flowers . . . have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its rigor.

A door that seems to stand open must be of a man's size, or it is not the door that providence means for him.

Every man carries a menagerie in himself; and, by stirring him up all around, you will find every sort of animal represented there.

That which distinguishes man from the brute is his power, in dealing with Nature, to milk her laws, and make them give forth their bounty.

Liberty is the soul's right to breathe and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.