Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces, which expose the whole movement.

And truly it demands something god like in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

The education of the will is the object of our existence.

I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are.

It is defeat which educates us.

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible.

Truth is always present; it only needs to lift the iron lids of the mind's eye to read its oracles.