"Let us not play at kittly-benders. There..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“I think it would be worth the while to introduce a school of children to such [an oak grove], that they may get an idea of the primitive oaks before they are all gone, instead of hiring botanists to lecture to them when it is too late.”

“Morning brings back the heroic ages.”

“For things to change, we must change.”

“Nature is no sentimentalist, - does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or a woman; but swallows your ship like a grain of dust. The cold, inconsiderate of persons, tingles your blood, benumbs your feet, freezes a man like an apple. The diseases, the elements, fortune, gravity, lightning, respect no persons.”

“Truth happens to an idea”

“If the truth is told, things are just as bad as you yourself care to make them.”

“He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.”

“The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence.”

“The foundation of the world lies in the nation. The foundation of the nation lies in the family. The foundation of the family lies in the individual.”