William Cullen Bryant

"Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness - a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster - children into strength and athletic proportion."

"Eloquence is the poetry of prose."

"Go forth under the open sky, and list To Nature's teachings."

"The little windflower, whose just opened eye is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at."

"The moon is at her full, and riding high, Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky Are all asleep tonight."

"The Parisian has his amusements as regularly as his meals, the theatre, music, the dance, a walk in the Tuilleries, a refection in the cafe, to which ladies resort as commonly as the other sex. Perpetual business, perpetual labor, is a thing of which he seems to have no idea."

"There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by."

"To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language."

"Where hast thou wandered, gentle gale, to find the perfumes thou dost bring?"