Chess is the touchstone of intellect.

We are surrounded by abysses, but the greatest of all depths is in our own heart, and an irresistible leaning leads us there. Draw thyself from thyself!

That we understand something perfectly, that we accomplish something better than anyone else around us, that is what matters.

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art, and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.

He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.

The artist may be well advised to keep his work to himself till it is completed, because no one can readily help him or advise him with it... but the scientist is wiser not to withhold a single finding or a single conjecture from publicity.

Such is the frailty of man that even where he makes the truest and most forcible impression in the memory, in the heart of his beloved, there also he must perish.