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.

I discover that my friends think only of my apparel, and those upon whom I have conferred acts of kindness prefer to remind me of my errors.

During all these years there existed within me a tendency to follow Nature in her walks.

If only the bird with the loveliest song sang, the forest would be a lonely place.

I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man living knows better than I do the habits of our birds.

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

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.