In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es alsobald etwas ganz anderes. Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchmen. Whenever you say anything or talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and right away it is something completely different.

Every great idea exerts, on first appearing, a tyrannical influence: Hence, the advantages it brings are turned all too soon into disadvantages.

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.

The day is for mistake and error, sequence of time for success and carrying out. The one who anticipates is master of the day.

Words are mere sound and smoke, dimming the heavenly light.