Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

I examine my own being, and find there a world, but a world rather of imagination and dim desires, than of distinctness and living power. Then everything swims before my senses, and I smile and dream while pursuing my way through the world.

Win for yourself that which your fathers have won.

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.

I had rather be Mercury, the smallest among seven [planets], revolving round the sun, than the first among five [moons] revolving round Saturn.

Nature has neither core nor skin: she’s both at once outside and in.