The poet is a madman lost in adventure.

I am never afraid of what I know.

Painting (like poetry) chooses 

from universals 

what is most apposite. 

It brings together, 

in a single imaginary being, 

circumstances and characteristics 

which occur in nature

 in many different persons.

The big question is 

whether you are going to be able to say 

a hearty yes 

to your adventure.

What happens when good people 

are put into an evil place? 

Do they triumph 

or does the situation dominate 

their past history and morality?

Who are you going to believe, 

me or your own eyes?

I determined never to stop 

until I had come to the end 

and achieved my purpose.

The enslaving of the other is also the enslaving of the self.

The basic fault lines today are 

not between people with different beliefs 

but between people who hold these beliefs 

with an element of uncertainty 

and people who hold these beliefs 

with a pretence of certitude.

Every man, 

when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, 

and to feel his own importance, 

will consider himself as fully equal 

to any other person whatever.

The eye by long use comes to see 

even in the darkest cavern: 

and there is no subject so obscure 

but we may discern some glimpse of truth 

by long poring on it.

It seems to me that 

at this time 

we need education in the obvious 

After all, the best part of a holiday 

is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, 

as to see all the other fellows busy working.

Life on earth is such a good story 

you cannot afford to miss the beginning... 

Beneath our superficial differences 

we are all of us 

walking communities of bacteria. 

The world shimmers, 

a pointillist landscape 

made of tiny living beings.

Exhilaration is that feeling you get 

just after a great idea hits you, 

and just before you realise what's wrong with it.

Today the world changes so quickly 

that in growing up 

we take leave 

not just of youth 

but of the world we were young in.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

The pain passes, 

but the beauty remains.

I didn't think; 

I experimented.

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; 

it stops to think. 

Music is immediate, 

it goes on to become.

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. 

There is always more mystery.

Perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps 

under the illusion that I am exploring, 

doomed to try and learn 

what I should simply recognise, 

learning a mere fraction 

of what I have forgotten.

Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

When I do good 

I feel good, 

when I do bad 

I feel bad, 

and that's my religion.

I love fools' experiments. 

I am always making them.

A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant 

may see farther than a giant himself.

Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, 

and making what is best out of them.

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, 

never completely forget about it.

Any feeling that I was enriching my mind 

from those surrounding me 

was unfortunately rare with me.

If we go on explaining 

we shall cease to understand one another.

No one feels another's grief, 

no one understands another's joy. 

People imagine they can reach one another. 

In reality they only pass each other by.

How sad it is 

that these great gentlemen should believe what anyone tells them 

and do not choose to judge for themselves! 

But it is always so.

Take care of the sense 

and the sounds will take care of themselves.

The more one pleases everybody, 

the less one pleases profoundly.

There are no lines in nature, 

only areas of colour, 

one against another.

In criticism I will be bold, 

and as sternly, 

absolutely just 

with friend and foe. 

From this purpose nothing shall turn me.

To understand a science, 

it is necessary to know its history.

For all life is a dream, 

and dreams themselves 

are only dreams.

The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.

The important thing is this: 

to be able, 

at any moment, 

to sacrifice what we are 

for what we could become.

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? 

Because thinking determines life.

The good life is a process, 

not a state of being. 

It is a direction 

not a destination.

The wise does at once 

what the fool does at last.

The soul is individualised spirit.

Courage is found in unlikely places.

There's no sense in being precise 

when you don't even know what you're talking about.

We used to think 

that if we knew one, 

we knew two, 

because one and one are two. 

We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about 'and'.

Nature uses as little as possible of anything.

Youth smiles without any reason. 

It is one of its chiefest charms.