The sickness of the heart is most easily got rid of by complaining and soothing confidence.

Man's highest merit always is, as much as possible, to rule external circumstances and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them.

All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one up to now has measured up to and, strictly considered, no one should. With all their study and effort, people are directed to what is outside, to the world about them, and they are kept busy coming to know this and to master it to the extent that their purposes require. . . . How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. And what is your duty? Whatever the day calls for.

nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

There are but few who have ideas and are, at the same time, capable of action. Ideas enlarge but stymie, action enlivens but confines.

Nature is, after all, the only book that offers important content on every page.

To know of someone here and there whom we accord with, who is living on with us, even in silence - - this makes our earthly ball a peopled garden.