“I have, alas! Philosophy,Medicine, Jurisprudence too,And to my cost Theology,With ardent labor, studied through.And here I stand, with all my lore,Poor fool, no wiser than before.”

“Ah yes, if I could have a magic cloakto whisk me off to foreign landsI should not trade it for the richest robes,nor for the mantle of a king.”

“Oh happy he who still can hope in our dayto breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error!What we don't know is really what we need,and what we know is of no use to us whatever!”

“Two souls alas! are dwelling in my breast”

“Medicine, and Law, and Philosophy -You've worked your way through every school,Even, God help you, Theology,And sweated at it like a fool.Why labour at it any more?You're no wiser now than you were before.You're Master of Arts, and Doctor too,And for ten years all you've been able to doIs lead your students a fearful danceThrough a maze of error and ignorance.And all this misery goes to showThere's nothing we can ever know.Oh yes you're brighter than all those relics,Professors and Doctors, scribblers and clerics,No doubts or scruples to trouble you,Defying hell, and the Devil too.But there's no joy in self-delusion;Your search for truth ends in confusion.Don't imagine your teaching will ever raiseThe minds of men or change their ways.And as for worldly wealth, you have none -What honour or glory have you won?A dog could stand this life no more.And so I've turned to magic lore;The spirit message of this art Some secret knowledge might impart.No longer shall I sweat to teach What always lay beyond my reach;I'll know what makes the world revolve,Its mysteries resolve,No more in empty words I'll deal -Creation's wellsprings I'll reveal!”

“How clearly I have seen my condition, yet how childishly I have acted. How clearly I still see it, and yet show no sign of improvement.”

“A dim vastness is spread before our souls; the perceptions of our mind are as obscure as those of our vision... But alas! when we have attained our object, when the distant 'there' becomes the present 'here,' all is changed; we are as poor and circumscribed as ever, and our souls still languish for unattainable happiness.”