"The child's desire to have distinctions made in his ideas grew stronger every day. Having learned that things had names, he wished to hear the name of every thing supposing that there could be nothing which his father did not know. He often teased him with his questions, and caused him to inquire concerning objects which, but for this, he would have passed without notice. Our innate tendency to pry into the origin and end of things was likewise soon developed in the boy. When he asked whence came the wind, and whither went the flame, his father for the first time truly felt the limitation of his own powers, and wished to understand how far man may venture with his thoughts, and what things he may hope ever to give account of to himself or others. The anger of the child, when he saw injustice done to any living thing, was extremely grateful to the father, as the symptom of a generous heart. Felix once struck fiercely at the cook for cutting up some pigeons. The fine impression this produced on Wilhelm was, indeed, erelong disturbed, when he found the boy unmercifully tearing sparrows in pieces and beating frogs to death. This trait reminded him of many men, who appear so scrupulously just when without passion, and witnessing the proceedings of other men. The pleasant feeling, that the boy was producing so fine and wholesome an influence on his being, was, in a short time, troubled for a moment, when our friend observed, that in truth the boy was educating him more than he the boy."

"Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient. To act is easy, to think is hard; to act according to our thought is troublesome. Every beginning is cheerful: the threshold is the place of expectation. The boy stands astonished, his impressions guide him: he learns sportfully, seriousness comes on him by surprise. Imitation is born with us: what should be imitated is not easy to discover. The excellent is rarely found, more rarely valued. The height charms us, the steps to it do not: with the summit in our eye, we love to walk along the plain. It is but a part of art that can be taught: the artist needs it all. Who knows it half, speaks much, and is always wrong: who knows it wholly, inclines to act, and speaks seldom or late. The former have no secrets and no force : the instruction they can give is like baked bread, savory and satisfying for a single day; but flour cannot be sown, and seed-corn ought not to be ground. Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the highest matter. Action can be understood and again represented by the spirit alone. No one knows what he is doing while he acts aright, but of what is wrong we are always conscious. Whoever works with symbols only is a pedant, a hypocrite, or a bungler. There are many such, and they like to be together. Their babbling detains the scholar: their obstinate mediocrity vexes even the best. The instruction which the true artist gives us opens the mind; for, where words fail him, deeds speak. The true scholar learns from the known to unfold the unknown, and approaches more and more to being a master."

"Alles Gescheite ist schon gedacht worden. Man muss nur versuchen, es noch einmal zu denken."

"My son, whoever wishes to keep a secret, must hide from us that he possesses one. Self complaisance over the concealed destroys its concealment."

"The folly! Every man in turn would still His own peculiar notions magnify! If Islam mean submission to God’s will, May we all live in Islam, and all die."

"Of old the sacred Koran did they cite, They named the verse and chapter ever blest, And each good Mussulman, as was but right, Reverenced, and felt his conscience was at rest. The modern Dervish nothing better knows, But prates of old and new with endless zest; Each day our most admired disorder grows. O sacred Koran! O eternal rest!"

"Wer nicht von dreitausend Jahren Sich weiß Rechenschaft zu geben, Bleib im Dunkeln unerfahren, Mag von Tag zu Tage leben."

"Niemand ist mehr Sklave, als der sich für frei hält, ohne es zu sein."

"Es gibt kein äußeres Zeichen der Höflichkeit, das nicht einen tiefen sittlichen Grund hätte. Die rechte Erziehung wäre, welche dieses Zeichen und den Grund zugleich überlieferte."

"No one would talk much in society, if he knew how often he misunderstands others."

"Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round."

"Dem Reichen übergibt der Baumeister mit dem Schlüssel des Palastes alle Bequemlichkeit und Behäbigkeit, ohne irgend etwas davon mitzugenießen. Muß sich nicht allgemach auf diese Weise die Kunst von dem Künstler entfernen, wenn das Werk wie ein ausgestattetes Kind nicht mehr auf den Vater zurückwirkt? Und wie sehr mußte die Kunst sich selbst befördern, als sie fast allein mit dem öffentlichen, mit dem, was allen und also auch dem Künstler gehörte, sich zu beschäftigen bestimmt war!"

"The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter."

"One is never satisfied with a portrait of a person that one knows."

"Tränenreiche Männer sind gut. Verlasse mich jeder, der trocknen Herzens, trockner Augen ist!"

"Es gibt Fälle, ... wo jeder Trost niederträchtig und Verzweiflung Pflicht ist."

"The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity."

"Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it be securely founded; that it be successfully executed."

"Gut! Ein Mittel, ohne Geld Und Arzt und Zauberei zu haben: Begib dich gleich hinaus aufs Feld, Fang an zu hacken und zu graben, Erhalte dich und deinen Sinn In einem ganz beschraunken Kreise, Ernauhre dich mit ungemischter Speise, Leb Mit dem Vieh als Vieh, and acht es nicht fur Raub, Den Acker, den du erntest, selbst zu dungen; Das ist das beste Mittel, glaub, Auf achtzig Jahr dich zu verjungenl"

"Schön war ich auch, und das war mein Verderben."

"Meine Ruh' ist hin,<br"

"Wer Recht behalten will und hat nur eine Zunge,<br"

"Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden,<br"

"Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live."

"Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie,<br"

"Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft."

"Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint."

"Zwey Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust."

"Die Botschaft hör ich wohl, allein, mir fehlt der Glaube"

"Bin ich ein Gott? Mir wird so licht!"

"Da stehe ich nun, ich armer Thor!<br"

"Es irrt der Mensch, so lang er strebt."

"Das Alter macht nicht kindisch, wie man spricht,<br"

"Was glänzt, ist für den Augenblick geboren;<br"

"Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores & sinners, seeing I go in for that myself."

"Much there is I can stand. Most things not easy to suffer I bear with quiet resolve, just as a God commands it. Only a few things I find as repugnant as snakes and poison. These four: tobacco smoke, bedbugs and garlic and Christ."

"Is it so big a mystery what god and man and world are? No! but nobody knows how to solve it so the mystery hangs on."

"All Nine often used to come to me, I mean the Muses: But I ignored them: my girl was in my arms. Now I've left my sweetheart: and they've left me, And I roll my eyes, seeking a knife or rope. But Heaven is full of gods: You came to aid me: Greetings, Boredom, mother of the Muse."