Prudent and active men, who know their strength and use it with limit and circumspection, alone go far in the affairs of the world.

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The Skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.

If youth is a fault, it is one that one gets rid of soon enough.

Certain books seem to be written, not that we might learn from them, but in order that we might see how much the author knows.

The finished man, you know, is difficult to please; a growing mind will ever show you gratitude. --Faust 1, lines 182-3

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.