Foolish is my happiness, and foolish things will it speak: it is still too young—so have patience with it!

Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator.

No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.

Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of the plants that grow in him.

For some natures, changing their opinions is just as much a requirement of cleanliness as changing their clothes: for others, however, it is merely a requirement of vanity.

The way to transmute your iron duty into gold in everyone's eyes is this: always deliver more than you promise.

I teach the No to all that makes weak--that exhausts. I teach the Yes to all that strengthens, that stores up strength, that pride.