“Every achievement is a servitude. It compels us to a higher achievement.”

“An achievement is a bondage. It obliges one to a higher achievement.”

“We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.”

“I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement.”

“And I proclaim that Shakespeare and Raphael are higher than the emancipation of the serfs, higher than nationality, higher than socialism, higher than the younger generation, higher than chemistry, higher than almost all mankind, for they are already the fruit, the real fruit of all mankind, and maybe the highest fruit there ever may be! A form of beauty already achieved, without the achievement of which I might not even consent to live...”

“The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement.”