We come to our own and would make friends with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools would persuade us to despise. We can never part with it; the mind loves its old home: as water to our thirst, so is rock, the ground, to our eyes, and hands, and feet. It is firm water: it is cold flame: what health, what affinity!

A man in pursuit of greatness feels no little wants.

The education of the will is the object of our existence.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance.

I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence andgood will at the heart of all things, and even higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men?

First be a good animal.

How much better when the whole land is a garden, and the people have grown up in the bowers of a paradise.