Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.

The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty,
Even though this world is forever altering its values.

Colour itself is a degree of darkness.

CHORUS
Gird thee for the high endeavor;
Shun the crowd's ignoble ease!
Fails the spirit never,
Wise to think, and prompt to seize.
Goethe, Faust, Part II, act 1, 50 -- 53.

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

I prefer an injurious truth to a useful error. Truth heals any pain it may inflict on us.

A man's errors are what make him amiable.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.

Oh God, how do the world and heavens confine themselves, when our hearts tremble in their own barriers!

The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

The society of women is the element of good manners.

True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

All theory, my friend, is grey, But green is life's glad golden tree.

We amuse ourselves painting our prison-walls with bright figures and brilliant landscapes.

Once I blazed across the sky,
Leaving trails of flame;
I fell to earth, and here I lie
Who'll help me up again?
-A Shooting Star.

The connoisseur of art must be able to appreciate what is simply beautiful, but the common run of people is satisfied with ornament.

How often do I lull my seething blood to rest, for you have never seen anything so unsteady, so uncertain, as this heart.

Once you have missed the first buttonhole you'll never manage to button up.