It makes no odds where a man goes or stays, if he is only about his business.
Every man should stand for a force which is perfectly irresistible.
For a man to act himself, he must be perfectly free; otherwise he is in danger of losing all sense of responsibility or of self- respect.
Some, it seems to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler.
What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator.
You need not rest your reputation on the dinners you give.
Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society.
Every nail driven should be as another rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.
I see less difference between a city and a swamp than formerly.
In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue.
There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which never goes out, and which no cold can chill.
Nature confounds her summer distinctions at this season. The heavens seem to be nearer the earth. The elements are less reserved and distinct. Water turns to ice, rain to snow. The day is but a Scandinavian night. The winter is an arctic summer.
A healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, summer is in his heart.
Winter is the time for study, you know, and the colder it is the more studious we are.
The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather, from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones, is a memorable crisis which all things proclaim. It is seemingly instantaneous at last.
You may tell by looking at any twig of the forest, ay, at your very wood-pile, whether its winter is past or not.
We go on dating from Cold Fridays and Great Snows; but a little colder Friday, or greater snow would put a period to man’s existence on the globe.
One who knew how to appropriate the true value of this world would be the poorest man in it. The poor rich man! all he has is whathe has bought.
I look upon England today as an old gentleman who is travelling with a great deal of baggage, trumpery which has accumulated fromlong housekeeping, which he has not the courage to burn.
It would surpass the powers of a well man nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise a sick one to lay down his bed and run.