Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it!

A noble soul alone can noble souls attract; And knows alone, as ye, to hold them.

If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.

They teach in academies far too many things, and far too much that is useless.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up.