The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.

You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.

Some of our weaknesses are born in us, others are the result of education; it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble.

A man may twist as he pleases, and do what he pleases, but he inevitably comes back to the track to which nature has destined him.

It is working within limits that the craftsman reveals himself.

Everything is simpler than one can imagine, and yet complicated and inter-twined beyond comprehension.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.