What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.
A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of its own; and it is as full of good fellowship as a sugar maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low, and of many subjects grave and gay.... For real company and friendship there is nothing, outside of the animal kingdom, that is comparable to a river.
Of all the things that man has made, no is so full of interest and charm, none possesses so distinct a life and character of its own, as a ship.
