"Man is an imitative animal. This quality..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson

“music, drawing, books, invention & exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui.”

“The failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“No human creature can give orders to love.”

“Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree. Indeed, it might be a basic characteristic of existence that those who know it completely would perish, in which case the strength of a spirit should be measured according to how much of the 'truth' one could still barely endure- or to put it more clearly, to what degree one would require it to be thinned down, shrouded, sweetened, blunted, falsified.”

“Nothing makes a man so selfish as work.”

“There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.”

“That day, Miss Mdingane told me that my new name was Nelson. Why she bestowed this particular name upon me I have no idea. Perhaps it had something to do with the great British sea captain Lord Nelson, but that would be only a guess.”

“What induces a child to learn but his delight in knowing?”