I am no more lonely than the loon (genus of web-footed aquatic bird) in the pond that laughs so loud or than water Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray? The Sun is alone except in thick weather but there the second Sun is a mock one. God is alone, —but the devil, he is far from being alone, he is legion.
* * * *
What is the pill that will keep us well, serene, contented?
Not any or thy great grandfathers, but our Great Grandmother Nature’s universal medicine – a draught of undiluted morning air.
* * * *
Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet like the lake my sympathy is rippled but not ruffled.
I have as it were my own sun and moon and stars and a world all to myself.
There was never yet such a storm but it was Aeolian music to a healthy and innocent ear.
* * * *
I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.
* * * *
To be in company even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.
* * * *
What do we want most to dwell near to?
Not to many men surely, the depot, the post office, the grocery etc. But to, “The perennial source of our life” whence in all our experience we have found that to issue, as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in that direction.
* * * *
I never found the companion that was so companionable as Solitude.
* * * *
Civilized folks live thick and are in each other’s way and stumble over one another.
The value of a man is not in his skin that we should touch him.