The near explains the far. The drop is a small ocean. A man is related to all nature. This perception of the worth of the vulgar is fruitful in discoveries. Goethe, in this very thing the most modern of the moderns, has shown us, as none ever did, the genius of the ancients.

The ocean is a large drop; a drop is a small ocean.

There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we must obey.

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion of well-doing and daring.

Sooner or later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

Of all tools, an observatory is the most sublime. . . . What is so good in a college as an observatory? The sublime attaches to the door and to the first stair you ascent, that this is the road to the stars.