Let things alone; let them weigh what they will; let them soar or fall.
The theories and speculations of men concern us more than their puny accomplishment. It is with a certain coldness and languor that we loiter about the actual and so-called practical.
A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.
To act collectively is according to the spirit of our institutions.
What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time, – the eternal laws!
It must be confessed that horses at present work too exclusively for men, rarely men for horses; and the brute degenerates in man’s society.
We slander the hyena; man is the fiercest and cruelest animal.
Indeed, the life of cattle, like that of many men, is but a sort of locomotiveness; they move a side at a time, and man, by his machinery, is meeting the horse and the ox half-way.
Improve every opportunity to be melancholy.
Voting for the right is doing nothing for it.
The forests are held cheap after the white pine has been culled out; and the explorers and hunters pray for rain only to clear theatmosphere of smoke.
It is darker in the woods, even in common nights, than most suppose.
It is a surprising and memorable, as well as valuable experience, to be lost in the woods any time.
Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.
Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.
The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice.
If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I may be mistaken.
There have been some nations who could do nothing but construct tombs, and these are the only traces which they have left. They are the heathen.
For the most part we stupidly confound one man with another. The dull distinguish only races or nations, or at most classes, but the wise man, individuals.
You may raise enough money to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business.