“When Darwin published his conclusion that man was descended from an apelike ancestor who was again descended from a still lower type.”

Living in the city is a discordant thing, an unnatural thing.

How many thorns of human nature are bristling conceits, buds of promise grown sharp for want of congenial climate.

I seldom go into a natural history museum without feeling as if I were attending a funeral.

Leap, and the net will appear.

The distribution of plants in a given locality is not more marked and defined than that of the birds. Show a botanist a landscape, and he will tell you where to look for the lady’s-slipper, the columbine, or the harebell.

It seems to me that evolution adds greatly to the wonder of life because it takes it out of the realm of the arbitrary, the exceptional, and links it to the sequence of natural causation.

Where country life is safe and enjoyable, where many of the conveniences and appliances of the town are joined to the large freedom and large benefits of the country, a high state of civilization prevails.

One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all – that has been my religion.

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

Fear, love, and hunger were the agents that developed the wits of the lower animals, as they were, of course, the prime factors in developing the intelligence of man.

There never was a happier or more devoted husband than the male bluebird. He is the gay champion and escort of the female at all times, and while she is sitting, he feeds her regularly.

Emerson stands apart from the other poets and essayists of New England, and of English literature generally, as of another order.

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.

Unadulterated, unsweetened observations are what the real nature-lover craves. No man can invent incidents and traits as interesting as the reality.

My life has been a fortunate one; I was born under a lucky star. It seems as if both wind and tide had favoured me.

Religion and science have a common ancestor – ignorance.

Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.

Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values.

So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

Ancestors do not mean so much. The rebel who succeeds generally makes it easier for the posterity that follows him; so these descendants are usually contented and smug and soft. Rebels are made from life, not ancestors.

We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite.

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

I know my father and my mother, but beyond that I cannot go. My ancestry is blurred.