Quote collection
1.7K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I have heard myself accused of being an opponent, an enemy of mathematics, which no one can value more highly than I, for it accomplishes the very thing whose achievement has been denied me."
"If you have a great work in your head, nothing else thrives near it; all other thoughts are repelled, and the pleasure of life itself is for the time lost."
"I will listen to anyone's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself."
"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."
"Men are joined by conviction, sundered by opinion."
"We amuse ourselves painting our prison-walls with bright figures and brilliant landscapes."
"No one as ever completed their apprenticeship."
"Rash combat oft immortalizes man; if he should fall, he is renowned in song; but after-ages reckon not the ceaseless tears which the forsaken woman sheds. Poets tell us not of the many nights consumed in weeping, or of the dreary days wherein her anguished soul vainly yearns to call her loved one back."
"An angel! Nonsense! Everybody so describes his mistress; and yet I find it impossible to tell you how perfect she is, or why she is so perfect: suffice it to say she has captivated all my senses."
"I do not speak of what I cannot praise."
"In the end we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply."
"He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own."
"The smallest hair throws its shadow. [Ger., Das kleinste Harr wirft seinen Schatten.]"
"A good man, through obscurest aspirations Has still an instinct of the one true way."
"Thou must (in commanding and winning, or serving and losing, suffering or triumphing) be either anvil or hammer."
"There are men who never err, because they never propose anything rational."
"To appear at church every Sunday; to look down upon, and let himself be looked at for an hour by the congregation, is the best means of becoming popular which can be recommended to a young sovereign."
"Poor fool! in whose petty estimation all things are little."
"What reason would grope for in vain, spontaneous impulse ofttimes achieves at a stroke, with light and pleasureful guidance."
"Faith is a homely, private capital; as there are public savings-banks and poor funds, out of which in times of want we can relieve the necessities of individuals, so here the faithful take their coin in peace."