To me the external existence of my soul is proved from my idea of activity. If I work incessantly until my death, nature will give me another form of existence when the present can no longer sustain my spirit.

Win for yourself that which your fathers have won.

I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.

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

What right those who govern have to govern they don't question, they just govern. Whether the people have a right to depose them that doesn't concern them. All they are concerned with is that the people will not be tempted to depose them.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

Plants and flowers of the commonest kind can form a pleasing diary, because nothing which calls back to us the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant.