We cannot walk through life on mountain peaks.

The rocks are not so close akin to us as the soil; they are one more remove from us; but they lie back of all, and are the final source of all. ... Time, geologic time, looks out at us from the rocks as from no other objects in the landscape.

That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges.

To see Earth fully we already need to love it

I have discovered the secret of happiness - it is work, either with the hands or the head. The moment I have something to do, the draughts are open and my chimney draws, and I am happy.

Before the bud swells, before the grass springs, before the plough is started, comes the sugar harvest. It is sequel of the bitter frost; a sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter.

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.