The most effective teacher will always be biased, for the chief force in teaching is confidence and enthusiasm.

A friend of mine tells me that a Beethoven symphony can solve for him a problem of conduct. I've no doubt that it does so simply by giving him a sense of the tragedy and the greatness of human destiny, which makes his personal anxieties seem small, which throws them into a new proportion.

People don't use their eyes. They never see a bird, they see a sparrow. They never see a tree, they see a birch. They see concepts.

An old mans memories, like his bones, grow sharp with age and show their true shapes.

The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer

I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience.

A perfect God is the creation of a conceited man