Neither a work of nature nor one of art we get to know when they have been finished; we must surprise them in the process of beingcreated so as to understand them to some degree.

That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.

The present moment is a powerful goddess.

A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

What I possess, seems far away to me, and what is gone becomes reality.

The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3