Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.
The ears were made, not for such trivial uses as men are wont to suppose, but to hear celestial sounds.
A stranger may easily detect what is strange to the oldest inhabitant, for the strange is his province.
What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, the apple of the world, then!
There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of Nature and has his senses still.
Wealth cannot purchase any great private solace or convenience. Riches are only the means of sociality.
In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions: know that you are alone in the world.
I now first began to inhabit my house, I may say, when I began to use it for warmth as well as shelter.
God is alone,-but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion.
The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears to hear it.
If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself.
Friendship is evanescent in every man's experience, and remembered like heat lightning in past summers.
Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference.
The inhabitants of Canada appeared to be suffering between two fires,--the soldiery and the priesthood.
What stuff is the man made of who is not coexistent in our thought with the purest and sublimest truth?
Most men cry better than they speak. You get more nurture out of them by pinching than addressing them.
Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.
The chief want, in every state that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants.
Open all your pores and bathe in all the tides of nature, in all her streams and oceans, at all seasons.
It is not enough that we are truthful; we must cherish and carry out high purposes to be truthful about.
I will come to you, my friend, when I no longer need you. Then you will find a palace, not an almshouse.
What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time,--the eternal laws!
The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.
Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.
We must love our friend so much that she shall be associated with our purest and holiest thoughts alone.
No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.
Where there is not discernment, the behavior even of the purest soul may in effect amount to coarseness.
It is said that some Western steamers can run on a heavy dew, whence we can imagine what a canoe may do.
If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated, he cheats himself.
Pity the man who has a character to support - it is worse than a large family - he is silent poor indeed.
If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.
The virtue of making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before does not begin to be superhuman.
They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy evil, that they may no longer have have it to regret.
It is the stars as not yet known to science that I would know, the stars which the lonely traveler knows.
The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive.
Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.
It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.
A man may acquire a taste for wine or brandy, and so lose his love for water, but should we not pity him.
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode.
To be a philosopher... is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.
The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.
The scholar is not apt to make his most familiar experience come gracefully to the aid of his expression.
Duty is one and invariable; it requires no impossibilities, nor can it ever be disregarded with impunity.
I am engaged to Concord and my own private pursuits by 10,000 ties, and it would be suicide to rend them.
Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.
A traveler who looks at things with an impartial eye may see what the oldest inhabitant has not observed.
One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors. To dwell long upon them is to add to the offense.
At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house.
Not till we are completely lost, or turned round, do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of Nature.