Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

Character and personal force are the only investments worth anything

I may be as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

Do anything, but let it produce joy.

The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

O Me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;
Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;
Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.