Probably we never fully credit the interdependence of wild creatures, and their cognizance of the affairs of their own kind.

Rabbits are a foolish people. They do not fight except with their own kind, nor use their paws except for feet, and appear to have no reason for existence but to furnish meals for meat-eaters. In flight they seem to rebound from the earth of their own elasticity, but keep a sober pace going to the spring. It is the young watercress that tempts them and the pleasures of society, for they seldom drink.

The palpable sense of mystery in the desert air breeds fables, chiefly of lost treasure. ... It is a question whether it is not better to be bitten by the little horned snake of the desert that goes sidewise and strikes without coiling, than by the tradition of a lost mine.

It is no use trying to improve on children's names for wildflowers.

For all the toll the desert takes of a man it gives compensations, deep breaths, deep sleep, and the communion of the stars.

Man learned to resort to the dance when he felt helpless or fragmentary, when he felt dislocated in his universe.

The real wonder is not that one man should be a genius, but that every man should not be.