For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.
~ Goethe
So lively brisk old fellow don't let age get you down. White hairs or not you can still be a lover.
I call architecture 'petrified music'.
Ordinary people know little of the time and effort it takes to learn to read. I have been eighty years at it and have not reached my goal.
A man can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days.
Talents are best nurtured in solitude: character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
If children grew up according to early indications we should have nothing but geniuses.
Unlike grownups children have little need to deceive themselves.
From desire I plunge to its fulfilment where I long once more for desire.
It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.
We can always redeem the man who aspires and strives.
It is said that no man is a hero to his valet. That is because a hero can be recognized only by a hero.
We accept every person in the world as that for which he gives himself out only he must give himself out for something. We can put up with the unpleasant more easily than we can endure the insignificant.
If you treat men the way they are you never improve them. If you treat them the way you want them to be you do.
If a man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.
A clever man commits no minor blunders.
There is not a single outward mark of courtesy that does not have a deep moral basis.
All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire but my heart is all my own.
There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.
Who does not know another language does not know his own.
When an idea is wanting a word can always be found to take its place.
Everyone hears only what he understands.
