Knowledge is not eating, and we cannot expect to devour and possess what we mean. Knowledge is recognition of something absent; it is a salutation, not an embrace.

Half our standards come from our first masters, and the other half from our first loves.

A man's memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past, according to his interest in the present.

Truth is a jewel which should not be painted over; but it may be set to advantage and shown in a good light.

The diseases which destroy a man are no less natural than the instincts which preserve him.

Repetition is the only form of permanence that Nature can achieve.

Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.