Never give up listening to the sounds of birds.

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.

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 purchased excellent and beautiful horses, visited all such neighbors as I found in congenial spirits, and was as happy as happy could be.

My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish.

Hunting, fishing, drawing, and music occupied my every moment. Cares I knew not, and cared naught about them.

[Drawing should be] a journey of pleasure. Each step must present to the travellers' view objects that are eminently interesting, varied in their appearances, and attracting to such a degree as to excite in each individual thus happily employed the desire of knowing all respecting all he sees.