Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet it is the same with this art as with all others: only the capacity for it is innate; the art itself must be learned and painstakingly practiced.

The best way to understand a painting is by drawing it.

What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like?

To like things like, whatever one may ail; There is certain help.

No man learns to know his inmost nature by introspection, for he rates himself sometimes too low, and often too high, by his own measurement. Man knows himself only by comparing himself with other men; it is life that touches his genuine worth.

We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.

A state of affairs which leads to daily vexation is not the right state.