I wonder how it is that so cheerful-looking a tree as the willow should ever have become associated with ideas of sadness.

Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do.

We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest.

What delights us in the spring is more a sensation than an appearance, more a hope than any visible reality. There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very sounds and odors of the sweet time, that caresses us and consoles us after the rigorous weeks of winter.

The one mistake which is committed habitually by people who have the gift of half-genius, is waiting for inspiration.

Culture is like wealth; it makes us more ourselves, it enables us to express ourselves

A perfect life is like that of a ship of war which has its own place in the fleet and can share in its strength and discipline, but can also go forth alone in the solitude of the infinite sea. We ought to belong to society, to have our place in it, and yet be capable of a complete individual existence outside of it.