He is the rich man, and enjoys the fruits of riches, who summer and winter forever can find delight in his own thoughts. - Henry David Thoreau

It is enough if Homer but say the sun sets. He is as serene as nature, and we can hardly detect the enthusiasm of the bard. It is as if nature spoke.... Each reader discovers for himself, that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.

I hate museums; there is nothing so weighs upon my spirits. They are the catacombs of nature. One green bud of spring, one willow catkin, one faint trill from a migrating sparrow would set the world on its legs again. The life that is in a single green weed is of more worth than all this death.

I am particularly attracted by the motions of the serpent tribe. They make our hands and feet, the wings of the bird, and the fins of the fish seem very superfluous, as if Nature had only indulged her fancy in making them.