Travel and society polish one, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, and a little moss is a good thing on a man.

Natural history is a matter of observation; it is a harvest which you gather when and where you find it growing. Birds and squirrels and flowers are not always in season, but philosophy we have always with us. It is a crop which we can grow and reap at all times and in all places and it has its own value and brings its own satisfaction.

What a severe yet master artist old Winter is... No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel.

Happiness comes most to persons who seek it least and think least about it. It is not an object to be sought, it is a state to be induced. It must follow and not lead. It must overtake you, and not you overtake it.

I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.

The honey-bee's great ambition is to be rich, to lay up great stores, to possess the sweet of every flower that blooms. She is more than provident. Enough will not satisfy her, she must have all she can get by hook or crook.

How much there is in books that one does not want to know, that it would be a mere weariness and burden to the spirit to know.