If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Do what you love. Know your own bone gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Those whom we can love, we can hate to others we are indifferent.

May we so love as never to have occasion to repent of our love!

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.