Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es alsobald etwas ganz anderes. Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchmen. Whenever you say anything or talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and right away it is something completely different.

We have time enough if we but use it aright

The older I get the more I trust in the law according to which the rose and the lily bloom.

The dignity of art probably appears most eminently with music since it does not have any material that needs to be discounted. Music is all form and content and elevates and ennobles everything that it expresses.

One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man.

I have observed that as long as one lives and bestirs himself, he can always find food and raiment, though it may not be of the choicest description.

Properly speaking, such work is never finished; one must declare it so when, according to time and circumstances, one has done one's best.