It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, "Were he living I would make him a king;" but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

What reason would grope for in vain, spontaneous impulse ofttimes achieves at a stroke, with light and pleasureful guidance.

Every need whose true satisfaction is denied leads by necessity to faith.

Science arose from poetry... when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.

If the world does improve on the whole, yet youth must always begin anew, and go through the stages of culture from the beginning.