Habit is the most imperious of all masters.

We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies

Enthusiasm is of the greatest value, so long as we are not carried away by it.

Who can think wise or stupid things at all that were not thought already in the past.

The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.

Desire is the presentiment of our inner abilities, and the forerunner of our ultimate accomplishments.

Does not man lack the force at the very point where he needs it most? And when he soars upward in joy, or sinks down in suffering, is not checked in both, is he not returned again to the dull, cold sphere of awareness, just when he was longing to lose himself in the fullness of the infinite.