People are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake what they see others do, whether they have an aptitude for it or not.

Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.

If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick

To hard necessity ones will and fancy must conform.

We always have time enough, if we will but use it aright.

The man who is born with a talent which he was meant to use finds his greatest happiness in using it.

I’ve studied now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine — and even, alas! Theology — from end to end with labor keen; and here, poor fool with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.

A man that all the world hates, there must be something about him.

We are accustomed to see men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies

A thinking man ‘ s greatest pleasure is to have searched for the knowable, and to have stood in awe before the unknowable.

As our inclinations, so our opinions

It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united

Be he a king or a peasant, he is happiest who finds peace at home.

Every author in some degree portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

Fortunately a human being can comprehend only a certain degree of unhappiness; anything beyond it destroys him or leaves him cold. There are situations in which fear and hope become one and the same, cancel...

Grant me one hour on love’s most sacred shoresTo clasp the bosom that my soul adores,Lie heart to heart and merge my soul with yours.

When a nation which has long groaned under the intolerable yoke of a tyrant rises at last and throws off its chains, do you call that weakness? The man who, to rescue his house from...

Die Welt ist voller Torheit, Dumpfheit, Inkonsequenz und Ungerechtigkeit. Es gehört viel Mut dazu, diesen nicht das Feld zu räumen.

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.

The artist who is not also a craftsman is no good; but, alas, most of our artists are nothing else

All that is transitory is only an image.

Don’t say that you want to give, but go ahead and give! You’ll never catch up with a mere hope.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

One ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words

A collection of anecdotes and maxims is the greatest of treasures for the man of the world, for he knows how to intersperse conversation with the former in fit places, and to recollect the latter...

What, then, is your duty? What the day demands

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!

It is better to be deceived by one’s friends than to deceive them.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life!

They travel with a constant companion, autumn.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

Great necessity elevates man, petty necessity casts him down

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

If youth is a fault, it is one which is soon corrected

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.

Everything is hard before it is easy

De sol e de mundos nada sei dizer, vejo apenas como os homens se atormentam. O pequeno Deus do mundo [o homem] continua na mesma e está tão admirável assim como no primeiro dia. Um...

A mans manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

Werd ich zum Augenblicke sagen:Verweile doch! du bist so schön!Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen,Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!