"I examine my own being, and find..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Whether one show one's self a man of genius in science or compose a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, the deed, is living and can live on.”

“One is never deceived; one deceives oneself.”

“Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.”

“The human race is inquisitive about other people's lives, but negligent to correct their own.”

“It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.”

“It is not easy to make our lives respectable by any course of activity. We must repeatedly withdraw into our shells of thought, like the tortoise, somewhat helplessly; yet there is more than philosophy in that.”

“rhetoric is will doing the work of imagination.”

“When I see birches bend to left and right... I like to think some boy's been swinging them.”

“Nature, like a kind and smiling mother, lends herself to our dreams and cherishes our fancies.”