We know accurately only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases

There is nothing in the world more pitiable than an irresolute man, oscillating between two feelings, who would willingly unite the two and who does not perceive that nothing can unite them

Alas! sorrow from happiness is oft evolved.

The deed is everything, the glory is naught.

Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part – yet nothing in...

All force strives forward to work far and wideTo live and grow and ever to expand;Yet we are checked and thwarted on each sideBy the world’s flux and swept along like sand:In this internal storm...

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honour or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his...

Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and — if at all possible — speak a few sensible words.

Treat people as if they were what they should be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

It is only in misery that we recognize the hand of God leading good men to good.

He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines

People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.

Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man.

Some of our weakness is born in us, some of it comes through education; it is a big question as to which gives us the most trouble.

The bird alighteth not on the spread net when it beholds another bird in the snare. Take warning by the misfortunes of others, that others may not take example from you.

One that does not think to highly of himself is more than he thinks.

Man is not born to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out what he has to do… within the limits of his comprehension.

We need a constitution, we need rules, but we don’t need a wall,

To act is easy; to think is hard

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden

Since I have heard often enough that everyone in the end has his own religion, nothing seemed more natural to me than to fashion my own

No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others

The further one advances in experience, the closer one comes to the unfathomable; the more one learns to utilize experience, the more one recognizes that the unfathomable is of no practical value

One is led astray alike by sympathy and coldness, by praise and by blame

The coward threatens when he is safe.

I’m fairly fond of boys, but my preference is for girls; When I have enough of a girl, she serves me still as a boy.

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what...

When glance turns To a sky-blue clear day,When the purplr-red sunSinks low at sirocco,Here nature bestows glory,Joy, sound to eye and heart,And we find in color lore,The universal truth. – – – GER:Wenn der Blick...

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

Each one’s no longer consciousOf the high wall, or the rest:Since the one enduring fortress,Is the soldier’s iron breast.If you’d live unconquered,Quickly arm, and fight the real foe:Every wife an Amazon bred,And every child a...

Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.

A man’s errors are what make him amiable

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.

Seldom in the business and transactions of ordinary life, do we find the sympathy we want.

To measure up to all that is demanded of him, a man must overestimate his capacities

Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever.

The world remains ever the same.

One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a human.

There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws.

Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time.

Whether a person shows themselves to be a genius in science or in writing a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, or the deed, is living and can live on.

‘Know thyself’? If I knew myself, I’d run away.

Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting.

The man who acts never has any conscience; no one has any conscience but the man who thinks

It is delivery that makes the orators success.

The man of understanding finds everything laughable

There is nothing more frightful than imagination without taste.