The fact is I am growing old too fast, alas! I feel it, and yet work I will, and may God grant me life to see the last plate of my mammoth work finished.

If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America.

Almost every day, instead of going to school when I ought to have gone, I usually made for the fields, where I spent the day.

I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens.

To repay evils with kindness is the religion I was taught to practise, and this will forever be my rule.

The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear.

The best recommendation I can have is my own talents, and the fruits of my own labors, and what others will not do for me, I will try and do for myself.