Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. - Henry David Thoreau

It is wise to write on many subjects, to try many themes, that so you may find the right and inspiring one.... You must try a thousand themes before you find the right one, as nature makes a thousand acorns to get one oak.

I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.

Falsehoods that glare and dazzle are sloped toward us, reflecting full in our faces even the light of the sun. Wait till sunset, or go round them, and the falsity will be apparent.