“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.”

“I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.”

“I am in love with this world... I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.”

“If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature....”

“It is always easier to believe than to deny. Our minds are naturally affirmative”

“The universe is so unhuman, that is, it goes its way with so little thought of man. He is but an incident, not an end. We must adjust our notions to the discovery that things are not shaped to him, but that he is shaped to them. The air was not made for his lungs, but he has lungs because there is air; the light was not created for his eye, but he has eyes because there is light. All the forces of nature are going their own way; man avails himself of them, or catches a ride as best he can. If he keeps his seat, he prospers; if he misses his hold and falls, he is crushed.”

“One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’.”