The Primal Plant is going be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself must envy me. With this model and the key to it, it will be possible to go on for ever inventing plants and know that their existence is logical; that is to say, if they do not actually exist, they could, for they are not the shadowy phantoms of a vain imagination, but possess an inner necessity and truth. The same law will be applicable to all other living organisms.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

[W]hat counts is that one perceives excellence and dares to give it expression, which sounds little but is in fact a great deal.

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.

Make the most of time, it flies away so fast; yet method will teach you to win time.