“The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers.”

“He alone is an acute observer, who can observe minutely without being observed.”

“You are not very good if you are not better than your best friends imagine you to be.”

“He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew.”

“You call me a misanthrope because I avoid society. You err; I love society. Yet in order not to hate people, I must avoid their company.”

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.”

“If we put ourselves in the place of other people, the jealousy and hatred we so often feel about them would disappear, and if we put others in our place, pride and conceit would greatly diminish.”