The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

There is really no insurmountable barrier save your own inherent weakness of purpose.

There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfillment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.

Yet these uneasy pleasures and fine pains are for curiosity, and not for life.

It is vain to keep a secret from one who has a right to know it. It will tell itself.

Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.