A human being needs only a small plot of ground on which to be happy, and even less to lie beneath.

Don't dissipate your powers; strive to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it will surely repent of every ill-judged outlay.

To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.

There is nothing outside of us that is not at the same time in us, and as the external world has its colors the eye, too, has colors.

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.

The real scholar learns how to evolve the unknown from the known, and draws near the master.

Mysterious in the light of day, nature retains her veil, despite our clamours: That which she does not willingly display cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws and hammers.