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.

Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.

The deeper our insight into the methods of nature . . . the more incredible the popular Christianity seems to us.

The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes; to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures; to the poet she is a storehouse of images, fancies, a source of inspiration; to the moralist she is a storehouse of precepts and parables; to all she may be a source of knowledge and joy.

I am in love with this world . . . I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.

The pleasure and value of every walk or journey we take may be doubled to us by carefully noting down the impressions it makes upon us.