I want nothing less than a faith founded upon a rock, faith in the constitution of things. The various man-made creeds are fictitious, like the constellations Orion, Cassiopeia’s Chair, the Big Dipper; the only thing real in them is the stars, and the only thing real in the creeds is the soul’s aspiration toward the Infinite.

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

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.

One can only learn his powers of action by action, and his powers of thought by thinking

Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of Mother Earth.

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

[T]he cold warms me—after a different fashion from that of the kitchen stove.