The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution.

The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources

The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.

How happy he who can still hope to lift himself from this sea of error! What we know not, that we are anxious to possess, and cannot use what we know.

But the valid issue is the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command.

The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.