Nothing is worth more than this day.

In all things it is better to hope than to despair

Since Time is not a person we can overtake when he is gone, let us honor him with mirth and cheerfulness of heart while he is passing

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

What is not fully understood is not possessed.

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.

Continue to make the demands of the day your immediate concern, and take occasion to test the purity of your hearts and the steadfastness of your spirits. When you then take a deep breath and...

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

The unnatural, that too is natural

Superstition is the poetry of life.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is

The Christian religion, though scattered and abroad will in the end gather itself together at the foot of the cross.

A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up

He is dead in this world who has no belief in another.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

The public wishes itself to be managed like a woman; one must say nothing to it except what it likes to hear

To create something you must be something.

Eigentlich weiß man nur wenn man wenig weiß – mit dem Wissen wächst der Zweifel.

Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which...

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

Jesus fühlte rein und dachteNur den Einen Gott im stillen;Wer ihn selbst zum Gotte machte,Kränkte seinen heiligen Willen.

In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm. … In the real world, all rests on perseverance.

At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.

Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.

Mediocrity has no greater consolation than in the thought that genius is not immortal

One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.

Only law can give us freedom.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t’were his own.

It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.

Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we...

What I possess I would gladly retain, change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits

Every offense is avenged on earth.

He who seizes the right moment, is the right man

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

I can promise to be frank, I cannot promise to be impartial.

That is the true season of love; when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved as much before, and that no one will ever love in the same...

The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.

Es ist nicht genug, zu wissen, man muß auch anwenden; es ist nicht genug, zu wollen, man muß auch tun.

Artists and artisans both demonstrate with perfect clarity that a person is least able to appropriate for himself those things which are most peculiarly his. His works leave him as birds do the best in...

I was on the point of breaking off the conversation, for nothing puts me so completely out of patience as the utterance of a wretched commonplace when I am talking from my inmost heart.

I am the spirit that negates.And rightly so, for all that comes to beDeserves to perish wretchedly;’Twere better nothing would begin.Thus everything that that your terms, sin,Destruction, evil represent—That is my proper element.

[Alexander von] Humboldt showers us with true treasures.

You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer

Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.