What do people mean when they talk about unhappiness? It is not so much unhappiness as impatience that from time to time possesses men, and then they choose to call themselves miserable.

One must be something, in order to do something.

A distracted existence leads us to no goal

I nothing had, and yet enough for youth--Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. Give unrestrained, the old emotion, The bliss that touched the verge of pain, The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion,--O, give me back my youth again!

There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).

The best genius is that which absorbs and assimilates everything without doing the least violence to its fundamental destiny.

Austere perseverance, hash and continuous... rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistible greater with time.