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.

How godlike, how immortal, is he?

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

There is in my nature, methinks, a singular yearning toward all wildness.

A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.

Thus we kept on like true idealists, rejecting the evidence of our senses.