Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.

Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.

The philosophers must station themselves in the middle.

I had toward the poetic art a peculiar relation which was only practical after I had cherished in my mind for a long time a subject which possessed me, a model which inspired me, a predecessor who attracted me, until at length, after I had molded it

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Let us seek to fathom those things that are fathomable and reserve those things which are unfathomable for reverence in quietude.

The summit charms us, the steps to it do not; with the heights before our eyes, we like to linger in the plain. It is only a part of art that can be taught; but the artist needs the whole. He who is only half instructed speaks much and is always wrong; who knows it wholly is content with acting and speaks seldom or late.