Is it not peculiar that a literal translation is almost always a terrible one? And yet, anything can be translated well. One sees here what it really means to understand fully a language; it means to understand fully the people who speak it.
That is, I only know the truth when it becomes a life in me.
Does, then, the truly beautiful need anything beyond ?
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.
Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
I have now what Universal Nature wills me to have, and I do what my own nature wills me to do.
Philosophy belongs to no one.
Two things teach man about his whole nature: instinct and experience.
You great star, what would your happiness be had you not those for whom you shine?
The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen.
The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.
To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.
Man is, before all else, something which propels itself towards a future and is aware that it is doing so.
Do not call yourself poor because your dreams were not ful-filled; truly poor is the one who never dreamed.
Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
In a great soul everything is great.
The really great men in the history of the world have all either known how to meditate or have unconsciously found their way to the place to which meditation leads us.
The opposite of falsehood is not truth, but doubt.
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles, and be moving continually to what is right;—this is the way to exalt one's virtue.
The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason...
To know truly is to know by causes.
What man is without fault, and what king without weakness?
A man of wit is lost, if to his wit he does not join energy of character. If you have the lantern of Diogenes, you must also have his cudgel.
Oh, that simplicity and innocence never recognise themselves and their sacred value!
We never should wait for absolute knowledge of the whole case, since the discovery of truth is an arduous task, but should proceed in the direction in which truth appeared to direct us.
The wicked are always surprised to find ability in the good.
The idea of the future, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is thus more fruitful than the future itself, and this is why we find more charm in hope than in possession, in dreams than in reality.
Travel teaches toleration.
E = mc²
Everything that happens is a symbol.
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