God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.

Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.

Ill-humor is nothing more than an inward feeling of our own want of merit, a dissatisfaction with ourselves which is always united with an envy that foolish vanity excites.

Nature reacts not only to physical disease, but also to moral weakness; when the danger increases; she gives us greater courage

No one can take from us the joy of the first becoming aware of something, the so-called discovery. But if we also demand the honor, it can be utterly spoiled for us, for we are usually not the first. What does discovery mean, and who can say that he has discovered this or that? After all it's pure idiocy to brag about priority; for it's simply unconscious conceit, not to admit frankly that one is a plagiarist.

Talents are nurtured best in solitude, But character on life's tempestuous seas!

Modern poets add a lot of water to their ink.