The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow; ever the grass grows.

Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. The lesson one learns from yachting or planting is the manners of Nature; patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water.

The sanity of society is a balance of a thousand insanity's.

He is a dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of magic, as well as of chemistry.

Five great enemies of peace inhabit us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride.

A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

England, an old and exhausted island, must one day be contented, like other parents, to be strong only in her children.