There is nothing but is related to us, nothing that does not interest us,--kingdom, college, tree, horse, or iron show,--the rootsof all things are in man.

The poet knows that he speaks adequately, then, only when he speaks somewhat wildly.

Whatever is old corrupts, and the past turns to snakes.

People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type or representative of humanity with the name of hero or saint.

The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself.

No book was ever written down by any but itself.

Women stand related to beautiful nature around us, and the enamoured youth mixes their form with moon and stars, with woods and waters, and the pomp of summer. They heal us of awkwardness by their words and looks. We observe their intellectual influence on the most serious student. They refine and clear his mind: teach him to put a pleasing method into what is dry and difficult.