The artist's conception of his art or the scientist's of his science is usually as great as his conception of his own worth is small.

Men seldom act from a correct sense of what may be harmful or useful to them.

He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.

He who travels much has this advantage over others – that the things he remembers soon become remote, so that in a short time they acquire the vague and poetical quality which is only given to other things by time. He who has not traveled at all has this disadvantage – that all his memories are of things present somewhere, since the places with which all his memories are concerned are present.

There are some centuries which - apart from everything else - in the art and other disciplines presume to remake everything because they know how to make nothing.

That is why all great men are modest: they consistently measure themselves not in comparison to other people but to the idea of perfection ever present in their minds, an ideal infinitely clearer and greater than any common people have, and they also realize how far they are from fulfilling their ideal.

He who doubts, knows - knows as much as can be known.