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This west coast makes me remember with pleasure the free, unbounded plains of Patagonia; yet, with the true spirit of contradiction, I cannot forget how sublime is the silence of the forest.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived

In society you will not find health, but in nature.

It is not down in any map; true places never are

Every feature became more rigidly alpine, without, however, producing any chilling effect; for going to the mountains is like going home.

Fears vanish as soon as one is fairly free in the wilderness.

The dullest eye in the world must surely be quickened by such trees as these.

Observe continually that all things exist in change; and keep this thought ever with you, that Nature loves nothing more than changing what things now are, and making others like them.

But we have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more are we capable of seeing.

None other than this long brown land lays such a hold on the affections. The rainbow hills, the tender bluish mists, the luminous radiance of the spring, have the lotus charm.

It is injurious to the mind as well as to the body to be always in one place and always surrounded by the same circumstances.

Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone.

Never had I felt confinement less—I who feel, when I am out of sight of living, growing grass, and out of sound of birds' voices and all rural sounds, that I am not properly alive!