Sometimes I don't understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!

Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it is securely founded; that it be successfully executed.

The history of science is science itself; the history of the individual, the individual.

We can stand only a certain amount of unhappiness; anything beyond that annihilates us or passes us by, leaving us apathethetic.

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.

Change amuses the mind, but rarely profits.

What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours.