Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

And we went our separate ways without having understood each other. As in this world nobody understands the other easily.

It is with art as with love: How can a man of the world,with all his distractions, keep the inwardness which an artist must possess if he hopes to attain perfection? That inwardness which the spectator must share if he is to understand the work as the artist wishes and hopes... Believe me, talents are like virtues; either you must love them for their own sake or renounce them altogether. And they are only recognized and rewarded when we have practised them in secret, like a dangerous mystery."

Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea.

If we are out of synch with ourselves, everything is out of synch for us.

He is a man whom it is impossible to please, because he is never pleased with himself.

Everything great and intelligent is in the minority