"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."

"I have traveled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways."

"Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul."

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the b…"

"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end."