I believe,—That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

I do not wish to flatter my townsmen, nor to be flattered by them, for that will not advance either of us.

I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our intercourse.

Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer? Read your fate, see what is before you, and walk on into futurity.