The artist has a twofold relation to nature; he is at once her master and her slave.

There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

A person hears only what they understand.

The Primal Plant is going be the strangest creature in the world, which Nature herself must envy me. With this model and the key to it, it will be possible to go on for ever inventing plants and know that their existence is logical; that is to say, if they do not actually exist, they could, for they are not the shadowy phantoms of a vain imagination, but possess an inner necessity and truth. The same law will be applicable to all other living organisms.

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.

Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them vanish the barriers of nationality.