All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.

It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.

And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.

Investigate what is, and not what pleases.

If you call a thing bad you do little, if you call a thing good you do much

People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.