When a man says to me, "I have the intensest love of nature," at once I know that he has none.

There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees.

A good intention but fixed and resolute - bent on high and holy ends, we shall find means to them on every side and at every moment; and even obstacles and opposition will but make us "like the fabled specter-ships," which sail the fastest in the very teeth of the wind.

The mind does not create what it perceives, any more than the eye creates the rose.

The influence of fine scenery, the presence of mountains, appeases our irritations and elevates our friendships.

Whom God has put asunder, why should man put together?

It is a tie between men to have read the same book.