 Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven. |
| Let us be true: this is the highest maxim of art and of life, the secret of eloquence and of virtue, and of all moral authority. |
| Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness. Topics: Childhood |
| The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. |
| Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not. |
| Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists. |
| We only understand that which already within us. |
| Our systems, perhaps, are nothing more than an unconscious apology for our faults, a gigantic scaffolding whose object is to hide from us our favorite sin. |
| To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song. |
| To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius. |
| The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret. |
| He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life. |
| In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties. |
| The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes. |
| Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence. |
| The only substance properly so called is the soul. |
| We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. |
| Uncertainty is the refuge of hope. |
| Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark. |
| Sympathy is the first condition of criticism. |
