No man who acts from a sense of duty ever puts the lesser duty above the greater. - Henry David Thoreau

My friend, my friend, Td speak so frank to thee that thou wouldst pray me to keep back some part, for fear I robbed myself.

I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I fear that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!

I have the same objection to killing a snake that I have to the killing of any other animal, yet the most humane man that I know never omits to kill one.