In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Madness does not govern a country; discussion does.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.

Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.

No house should ever be on any hill or on anything. It should be of the hill, belonging to it, so hill and house could live together each the happier for the other.

I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.

Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.

An inability to stay quiet . . . is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.

Nothing is more precious than being in the present moment. Fully alive, fully aware.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

A place for everything and everything in its place.