He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment, and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows even admit the light and with a lamp lengthen out the day.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.

Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.