Art is in itself noble; that is why the artist has no fear of what is common. This, indeed, is already ennobled when he takes it up.

How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.

My counsel is, to force nothing, and rather to trifle and sleep away all unproductive days and hours, than on such days to compose something that will afterwards give no pleasure.

There are men who never err, because they never propose anything rational.

Happy is it, indeed, for me that my heart is capable of feeling the same simple and innocent pleasure as the peasant whose table is covered with food of his own rearing, and who not only enjoys his meal, but remembers with delight the happy days and sunny mornings when he planted it, the soft evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure he experienced in watching its daily growth.

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.

The rose is wont with pride to swell, and ever seeks to rise.