The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.

Nature paints the best part of a picture, carves the best parts of the statue, builds the best part of the house, and speaks the best part of the oration.

The measure of action is the sentiment from which it proceeds. The greatest action may easily be one of the most private circumstance.

A human being should beware how he laughs, for then he shows all his faults.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine.

Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede muscular activity.