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.

Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and its own general wants, without apish imitation of another.

If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.

I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.