February 13, 1848:
“When a man’s own culture falls behind that of his time, he is conservative. When it outstrips and enables him to over-see his time, he becomes a reformer.”
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January 3, 1851:
“Foreseen and premeditated discourse seldom serves me for occasions, and I am happiest when left to the methods of intuition. The initial thought is all, and the rest follows according to the genius of the moment and the present company. The power comes, and comes only, when unsought. An abandonment to the instincts appears to be the state of mind necessary for the largest reception of the Spirit. Conversation is a gift of divine grace; and if the mind will but wait, it shall be filled and overflow.”
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January 10, 1851: [In which Alcott, unbeknown to himself, laments that he was born before the invention of tape recorders, which do for us now exactly what he wished could be done for him then.]
“’Tis a thousand pities that we have not caught the secret yet of daguerreotyping our thoughts as they are spoken in conversation. That would be a discovery worth while, and outlive all predecessors in the arts. … I shall not say as good things, much less write as good, about the Memory and Plato’s reminiscences, again, as I did today when conversing with my cousin…. O for a Hermes to report us!”
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January 10, 1852:
“’Tis so easy to blame and denounce; but for truth’s, for righteousness’ sake, as for that of charity and good manners too, let us abstain from pushing his duty (if duty it be) very far or frequently. Even good men may damn themselves in denouncing the damned.”
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March 11, 1852:
“The child’s body is a recollection of ancestral particles from seven generations preceding; and the like of its mind’s memories also. All instincts are recollections of foregone lives.”
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May 1, 1864: [Observing his young grandson.]
“To conceive his acquirements as originating in nature and dating from his birth into his body, it to me an atheism that human stupidity alone could entertain; an idiocy which our shallow metaphysical culture could alone have made possible in these days of such marvellous material knowledge, such victories over the natural forces.”
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Of course these are only bits and pieces, but perhaps they provide a hint of the richness and depth of his mind, the sureness and balance of his instincts.