Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

Produce great men, the rest follows.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.

A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.