“My life should be unique; it should be an alms, a battle, a conquest, a medicine.”

“My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.”

“My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.”

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”

“If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.”

“Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.”

“Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.”