Man is, and always has been, a maker of gods. It has been the most serious and significant occupation of his sojourn in the world.

The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.

We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.

The fisherman has a harmless, preoccupied look; he is a kind of vagrant, that nothing fears. He blends himself with the trees and the shadows. All his approaches are gentle and indirect. He times himself to the meandering, soliloquizing stream; he addresses himself to it as a lover to his mistress; he woos it and stays with it till he knows its hidden secrets. Where it deepens his purpose deepens; where it is shallow he is indifferent. He knows how to interpret its every glance and dimple; its beauty haunts him for days.

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

The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.