To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome.

The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

True art can only spring from the intimate linking of the serious and the playful.

In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!

A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.