During the first period of our lives the greatest danger is not to take the risk. When once the risk has been taken, then the greatest danger is to risk too much. By not risking at first one turns aside and serves trivialities; in the second case, by risking too much, one turns aside to the fantastic and perhaps to presumption.

Job endured everything - until his friends came to comfort him, then he grew impatient.

It is modest of the nightingale not to require anyone to listen to it; but it is also proud of the nightingale not to care whether any one listens to it or not.

...he who always hopes for the best becomes old, deceived by life, and he who is always prepared for the worst becomes old prematurely; but he who has faith, retains eternal youth.

I would have perished had I not perished.

Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

Intelligence has got the upper hand to such an extent that it transforms the real task into an unreal trick and reality into a play.