The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.

Like other beautiful things in this world, its end (that of a shaft) is to be beautiful; and, in proportion to its beauty, it receives permission to be otherwise useless. We do not blame emeralds and rubies because we cannot make them into heads of hammers.

All of one's life is music, if one touches the notes rightly, and in time.

The beginning and almost the end of all good law is that everyone shall work for their bread and receive good bread for their work.

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.

Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.

Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.