Trifles to one are matters of life and death to another

Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.

To think, as the sun goes down, what events have happened in the course of the day, events of ordinary occurrence: as, the clocks have struck, the dead have been buried.

Curious to imagine, what murmurings and discontent would be excited if any of the great so-called calamities of human beings were to be abolished, as, for instance, death.

Trifles to one are matters of life and death to another. As, for instance, a farmer desires a brisk breeze to winnow his grain; and mariners, to blow them out of the reach of pirates.