There are brains so large that they unconsciously swamp all individualities ties which come in contact or too near, and brains so small that they cannot take in the conception of any other individuality as a whole, only in part or parts.

A king or a prince becomes by accident a part of history. A poet or an artist becomes by nature and necessity a part of universal humanity.

Chill penury weighs down the heart itself; and though it sometimes be endured with calmness, it is but the calmness of despair.

He that seeks popularity in art closes the door on his own genius: as he must needs paint for other minds, and not for his own.

What we truly and earnestly aspire to be, that in some sense we are.

Lavater told Goethe that on a certain occasion when he held the velvet bag in the church as collector of the offerings, he tried to observe only the hands; and he satisfied himself that in every individual the shape of the hand and of the fingers, the action and sentiment in dropping the gift into the bag, were distinctly different and individually characteristic.

The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us.