Everyone believes in his youth that the world really began with him, and that all merely exists for his sake.

Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.

I consider him of no account who esteems himself just as the popular breath may chance to raise him.

The experiences show us just as we are; they make us see our own defects.

If all these devils really exist it proves there must be angels, too.

The useful may be trusted to further itself, for many produce it and no one can do without it; but the beautiful must be specially encouraged, for few can present it, while yet all have need of it.

The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.