It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

The immense success of our life is, I think, that our treasure is hid away; or rather in such common things that nothing can touch it.

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.

A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life

There was a serenity about him always that had the look of innocence, when, technically, the word was no longer applicable.

Lord, how tired one gets of one's own writing.

Walden - all his books, indeed - are packed with subtle, conflicting, and very fruitful discoveries. They are not written to prove something in the end. They are written as the Indians turn down twigs to mark their path through the forest. He cuts his way through life as if no one had ever taken that road before, leaving these signs for those who come after, should they care to see which way he went.