If thinking is your fate, revere this fate with divine honour and sacrifice to it the best, the most beloved

Poets and writers who are in love with the superlative all want to do more than they can.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.

Time flies apace-we would fain believe that everything flies forward with it.

He who strays from the customary becomes a sacrifice to the extraordinary; he who keeps to the customary becomes its slave. He iscondemned to perish in either case.

Man is the cruelest animal.