"Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but less by assimilation than by friction."

“Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one's nose.”

“Don't send a poet to London.”

“The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact that the good Lord has not created money enough.”

“Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.”

“No talent, but a character.”

“He who will establish himself on a certain height must yield according to circumstances, like the weather-cock on a church-spire, which, though it be made of iron, would soon be broken by the storm-wind if it remained obstinately immovable, and did not understand the noble art of turning to every wind. But a great man will never so far contradict his own feelings as to see, or, it may be, increase, with cold-blooded indifference, the misfortunes of his fellow country-men.”