I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply.

A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.

There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness.

A great teacher makes hard things easy.

As I walked in the woods I felt what I often feel that nothing can befall me in life, no calamity, no disgrace (leaving me my eyes) to which Nature will not offer a sweet consolation. Standing on the bare ground with my head bathed by the blithe air, & uplifted into the infinite space, I become happy in my universal relations. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign & accidental. I am the heir of uncontained beauty and power.