Tear thyself from delay.
Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king.
Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.
You who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities and think long and hard on what your powers are equal to and what they are unable to perform.
O imitators, you slavish herd!
A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.
In the word of no master am I bound to believe.
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.
New arts destroy the old.
The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.
I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
Friends are thieves of time.
Nuptial love makes mankind; friendly love perfects it; but wanton love corrupts and debases it.
Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
It is hard to go beyond your public. If they are satisfied with cheap performance, you will not easily arrive at better. If they know what is good, and require it. you will aspire and burn until you achieve it. But from time to time, in history, men are born a whole age too soon.
The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.
