If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?
From Henry David Thoreau
If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.
The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.
I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life.
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.
Front yards are not made to walk in, but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way.
The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.
It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.
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