Al David Quotes

Still we live meanly like ants, though the fable tells us we were long ago changed into men.

The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us.

Whatever sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice.

As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.

The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom.

The very uprightness of the pines and maples asserts the ancient rectitude and vigor of nature. Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.

How can he remember well his ignorance - which his growth requires - who has so often to use his knowledge?

How important is a constant intercourse with nature and the contemplation of natural phenomena to the preservation of moral and intellectual health!

It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Equally important is the job you are working at.

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

Where there is a lull in truth an institution springs up.

It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went.

I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays.

By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent.

As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.

I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot.

Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well. Why, nature is but another name for health.

I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for the truth.

Let your walks now be a little more adventurous.

In the love of narrow souls I make many short voyages but in vain-I find no sea room-but in great souls I sail before the wind without a watch, and never reach the shore.

We do not associate the idea of antiquity with the ocean, nor wonder how it looked a thousand years ago, as we do of the land, for it was equally wild and unfathomable always.

Water is a pioneer which the settler follows, taking advantage of its improvements.

Color, which is the poet's wealth, is so expensive that most take to mere outline sketches and become men of science.

The best poets, after all, exhibit only a tame and civil side of nature. They have not seen the west side of any mountain.

All the past is here, present to be tried; let it approve itself if it can.

He is the rich man, and enjoys the fruit of his riches, who summer and winter forever can find delight in his own thoughts.

I never was so rapid in my virtue but my vice kept up with me.

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.

There are two classes of authors: the one write the history of their times, the other their biography.

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.

Writing may be either the record of a deed or a deed. It is nobler when it is a deed.

He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behaviour as well as application.

The mission of men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest all out of the country, from every solitary beaver swamp and mountain-side, as soon as possible.

Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God.

It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work.

As if there were safety in stupidity alone

There must be the... generating force of Love behind every effort destined to be successful.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself.

Only lovers know the value and magnanimity of truth.

There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite.

Stuff a cold and starve a cold are but two ways. They are the two practices, both always in full blast. Yet you must take the advice of the one school as if there was no other.

Your scheme must be the framework of the universe; all other schemes will soon be ruins.

Expect no trivial truth from me, unless I am on the witness- stand. I will come as near to lying as you can drive a coach and four.

There is none who does not lie hourly in the respect he pays to false appearance.

Let us not play at kittly-benders. There is a solid bottom everywhere.

If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends!

Slow are the beginnings of philosophy.

Beside some philosophers of larger vision, Carlyle stands like an honest, half-despairing boy, grasping at some details only of their world systems.

If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him.