Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.

If the gatherer gathers too-much, Nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates, monopolies and exceptions.

We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.

The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine.

The universe does not jest with us, but is in earnest.

Our condition as men is risky and ticklish enough. One can not be sure of himself and his fortune an hour, but he may be whisked off into some pitiable or ridiculous plight.

The shoemaker makes a good shoe because he makes nothing else.