I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

Make the most of your regrets never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

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.

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.