Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap.

There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.

Just begin and the mind grows heated; continue, and the task will be completed!

I hate all bungling as I do sin, but particularly bungling in politics, which leads to the misery and ruin of many thousands and millions of people.

Always to distrust is an error, as well as always to trust.

The flowers of life are but illusions. How many fade away and leave no trace.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.