It is equally a mistake to hold one's self too high, or to rate one's self too cheap.

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.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

The march of intellect, which licks all the world into shape, has even reached the devil.

Every day I observe more and more the folly of judging of others by ourselves; and I have so much trouble with myself, and my own heart is in such constant agitation, that I am well content to let others pursue their own course, if they only allow me the same privilege.

Everything perfect in its kind has to transcend its own kind, it must become something different and incomparable. In some notes the nightingale is still a bird; then it rises above its class and seems to suggest to every winged creature what singing is truly like.