Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity. For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound. It is so timid and dislikes going into the water.

The people we keep standing in the anteroom of our favor either start fermenting or turn sour.

Our shortcomings are the eyes with which we see the ideal.

I love him who scattereth golden words in advance of his deeds, and always doeth more than he promiseth: for he seeketh his own down-going.

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

Love matches, so called, have illusion for their father and need for their mother.

Rendering oneself unarmed when one had been the best-armed, out of a height of feeling-that is the means to real peace, which must always rest on a peace of mind.