Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

Truth is contrary to our nature, not so error, and this for a very simple reason: truth demands that we should recognize ourselves as limited, error flatters us that, in one way or another, we are unlimited.

The sea is flowing ever, The land retains it never.

Is it life, I ask, is it even prudence, To bore thyself and bore the students?

Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him! [Ger., Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten.

A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.

Man supposes that he directs his life and governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny