We must have kings, we must have nobles; nature is always providing such in every society; only let us have the real instead of the titular. In every society some are born to rule, and some to advise. The chief is the chief all the world over, only not his cap and plume. It is only this dislike of the pretender which makes men sometimes unjust to the true and finished man.

Everyone I meet is in some way my superior.

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.

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.

As a man thinketh, so is he, and as a man chooseth, so is he.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public.