The world - this shadow of the soul, or other me - lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult... So much only of life as I know by experience... The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

The book of nature is the book of fate. She turns the gigantic pages, leaf after leaf never returning one.

Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances.

By going one step further back in thought, discordant opinions are reconciled by being seen to be two extremes of one principle, and we can never go so far back as to preclude a still higher vision.

We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings. But how great a language to convey such pepper-corn informations!

God hides things by putting them near us.