I foresee it and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint. I don't in fact know very often what the paint will do, and it does many things which are very much better than I could make it do.

It is a strange desire, to seek power, and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self.

Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed and preserved forever in amber, a more than royal tomb.

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature; neither his understanding nor his power extends further.

Atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man.

There is superstition in avoiding superstition.

As is the garden such is the gardener. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds.