Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you. For you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobler's trade; a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your own world.

When a natural king becomes a titular king, every body is pleased and satisfied.

Lovers should guard their strangeness. If they forgive too much, all slides into confusion and meanness.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

The riddle of the age has for each a private solution.

I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called history is.

But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's.