Master and Doctor are my titles; for ten years now, without repose, I held my erudite recitals and led my pupils by the nose.

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.

A man is not little when he finds it difficult to cope with circumstances, but when circumstances overmaster him.

Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.

Many young painters would never have taken their pencils in hand if they could have felt, known, and understood, early enough, what really produced a master like Raphael.

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.

Basic characteristics of an individual organism: to divide, to unite, to merge into the universal, to abide in the particular, to transform itself, to define itself, and as living things tend to appear under a thousand conditions, to arise and vanish, to solidify and melt, to freeze and flow, to expand and contract. Since these effects occur together, any or all may occur at the same moment.