O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility.

We cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for.

Never get a reputation for a small perfection if you are trying for fame in a loftier area. The world can only judge by generals, and it sees that those who pay considerable attention to minutiae seldom have their minds occupied with great things.

In some exquisite critical hints on "Eurythmy," Goethe remarks, "that the best composition in pictures is that which, observing the most delicate laws of harmony, so arranges the objects that they by their position tell their own story." And the rule thus applied to composition in painting applies no less to composition in literature.

What is human is immortal!

Beside one deed of guilt, how blest is guiltless woe!

Our ideas, like orange-plants, spread out in proportion to the size of the box which imprisons the roots.