Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield but to my own strength. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved but hope for the patience to win my freedom. Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone; but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.

Not hammer-strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection.

The artist is the lover of nature; therefore he is her slave and her master.

Ah, thou hast made my heart captive in the endless meshes of thy music, my master!

The flower fades and dies; but he who wears the flower has not to mourn for it for ever.

We manage to swallow flesh, only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do.

Memory, the priestess, kills the present and offers its heart to the shrine of the dead past.