National literature does not mean much these days; now is the age of world literature, and every one must contribute to hasten thearrival of that age.

Everything perfect in its kind has to transcend its own kind, it must become something different and incomparable. In some notes the nightingale is still a bird; then it rises above its class and seems to suggest to every winged creature what singing is truly like.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Patriotism ruins history.

Nothing can be compared to the new life that the discovery of another country provides for a thoughtful person. Although I am still the same I believe to have changed to the bones.

It is natural to man to regard himself as the object of the creation, and to think of all things in relation to himself, and the degree in which they can serve and be useful to him.

What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.