“Progress, under whose feet the grass mourns and the forest turns into paper from which newspaper plants grow, has subordinated the purpose of life to the means of subsistence and turned us into the nuts and bolts for our tools
“If there were only turnips and potatoes in the world, someone would complain that plants grow the wrong way.
“Reason now gazes above the realm of the dark but warm feelings as the alpine peaks do above the clouds. They behold the sun more clearly and distinctly, but they are cold and unfruitful
“We cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing
“The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.
“The day is done, and the darkness, falls from the wings of night, as a feather is wafted downward, from an eagle in his flight
“If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature; and the greatest of these, at least the most constant and always at hand, is nature
“Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral