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.

There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.

All sounds are sharper in winter; the air transmits better. At night I hear more distinctly the steady roar of the North Mountain. In summer it is a sort of complacent purr, as the breezes stroke down its sides; but in winter always the same low, sullen growl.

I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.

The budget for nuclear forces in the United States is on the order of $25 billion or so. That includes warheads, delivery systems, command and control; does not include environmental clean-up, which is another maybe $10 billion or so. So that's about 5% of the U.S. military budget.

I still find each day too short.

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.