If the East loves infinity, the West delights in boundaries.

That which we are, we are all the while teaching, not voluntarily, but involuntarily.

I can believe a miracle because I can raise my own arm. I can believe a miracle because I can remember. I can believe it because I can speak and be understood by you.

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.

Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.

To a dull mind all of nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

Necessity does everything well.