They say there is a tune which is forbidden to be played in the European armies because it makes the Swiss desert, since it reminds them so forcibly of their hills and home. I have heard many Swiss tunes played in college. Balancing between getting and not getting a hard lesson, a breath of fragrant […]

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing… The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, – no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, – my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, – all mean egotism vanishes. […]

For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance. Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it. Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate.

Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed people who can enjoy what they find, without question. Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very sense when they say, ‘Children, eat your victuals, and say no more of it.’

Nature is no spendthrift, but takes the shortest way to her ends.

The book of Nature is the book of Fate. She turns the gigantic pages – leaf after leaf, never returning one.

Nature and literature are subjective phenomena; every evil and every good thing is a shadow which we cast.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.