People who wish to numb our caution in dealing with them by means of flattery are employing a dangerous expedient, like a sleeping draught, which, if it does not put us to sleep, keeps us all the more awake.

He who attains his ideal, precisely thereby surpasses it.

The finest and healthiest thing about science is, as in the mountains, the brisk air blowing around in it.--The spiritually delicate (such as artists) shun and slander science owing to this air.

A good seat on a horse steals away your opponent's courage and your onlooker's heart-what reason is there to attack? Sit like one who has conquered?

Some men have sighed over the abduction of their wives, but many more have sighed because no one wanted to abduct theirs.

That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts.

Some mothers need happy children; others need unhappy ones-otherwise they cannot prove their maternal virtues.