Words that changed hearts

I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil. In Wildness is the preservation of the World.

I have taken all knowledge to be my province; and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers... I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries

The happy man is one whose reason recommends to him every act. The wise man's soul ought to be such as would be proper for a god—uplifted, fearless, and greater than his troubles.

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.

Our wise men have warned us, in solemn accents of Sanskrit, to talk away as much as we like, but never to write it down. There are proofs, many of them, that I have habitually disregarded this sage advice, following it only when called upon to reply.

Life transcends both mechanism and finality by its very definition. The essence of life is in the movement by which life is transmitted; it is this continuity of movement, it is this heredity, that is the life of life.