To prejudge other men's notions 

before we have looked into them 

is not to show their darkness 

but to put out our own eyes.

Hence it happens that one takes words for concepts, 

and concepts for the things themselves.

All that is real is reasonable, 

and all that is reasonable is real.

Who covets more is evermore a slave.

We increase whatever we praise. 

The whole creation responds to praise, 

and is glad.

Just luxuriate in a certain memory, 

and the details will come. 

It's like a magnet attracting steel filings.

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.

Words are but pictures of our thoughts.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. 

An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

What we observe as material bodies and forces are 

nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.

Knowing reality means 

constructing systems of transformations 

that correspond, 

more or less adequately, 

to reality.

Sometimes it's the detours which turn out to be the fruitful ideas.

Mystery creates wonder 

and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.

Reason respects the differences, 

and imagination the similitudes of things.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

The secret of life is to have a task, 

something you devote your entire life to, 

something you bring everything to, 

every minute of the day for the rest of your life. 

And the most important thing is, 

it must be something you cannot possibly do.

We are made wise 

not by the recollection of our past, 

but by the responsibility for our future.

Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

One gets to the heart of the matter 

by a series of experiences in the same pattern,

but in different colours.

How difficult it is 

to save the bark of reputation 

from the rocks of ignorance.

There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man 

that he does not know 

till he takes up a pen to write.

There is something joyous about not talking.

I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.

There is no value in life 

except what you choose to place upon it 

and no happiness in any place 

except what you bring to it yourself.

It is strange how one feels drawn forward 

without knowing at first where one is going.

Where ignorance is our master, 

there is no possibility of real peace.

We give advice by the bucket, 

but take it by the grain.

In the fight between you and the world, 

back the world.

If you hate a person, 

you hate something in him that is part of yourself. 

What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

An open foe may prove a curse, 

but a pretended friend is worse.

Nature never deceives us; 

it is we who deceive ourselves.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

The man who voyages strange seas must 

of necessity 

be a little unsure of himself. 

It is the man with the flashy air of knowing everything, 

who is always with it, 

that we should beware of.

The order of ideas must follow the order of things.

My thought is me: 

that is why I cannot stop thinking. 

I exist because I think 

I cannot keep from thinking.

Imagination disposes of everything; 

it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, 

which are everything in this world.

While living 

I want to live well.

It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, 

something the best people have always done.

Joy is 

of the will which labours, 

which overcomes obstacles, 

which knows triumph.

There is no better high than discovery.

Study nature, 

love nature, 

stay close to nature. 

It will never fail you.

Human reason needs only to will more strongly than fate, and she is fate.

Thinking is the best way to travel.

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.

The future is no more uncertain than the present.

One sees great things from the valley; 

only small things from the peak.

The study of Nature is intercourse with the Highest Mind. 

You should never trifle with Nature.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

If a tree dies, 

plant another in its place.