If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party; and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

Conscience is the virtue of the observers not the agents of action

Sweet moonlight, shining full and clear, Why do you light my torture here? How often have you seen me toil, Burning last drops of midnight oil. On books and papers as I read, My friend, your mournful light you shed. If only I could flee this den And walk the mountain-tops again, Through moonlit meadows make my way, In mountain caves with spirits play - Released from learning's musty cell, Your healing dew would make me well!

Should I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature?

Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.

The little man is still a man.