One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one.

The cardinal virtue of a teacher [is] to protect the pupil from his own influence.

Is all literature eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imitation? our life a custom, and our body borrowed, like a beggar’s dinner, from a hundred charities?

The customer is the immediate jewel of our souls. Him we flatter, him we feast, compliment, vote for, and will not contradict.

When I walk up the piazza of Santa Croce I feel as if it were not a Florentine nor an European church but a church built by and for the human race.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Each of us sees in others what we carry in our own hearts.