When you take a man as he is, you make him worse. When you take a man as he can be, you make him better.

• Reason can never be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular, but reason will always remain the sole property of a few eminent individuals.
• Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
• Whenever I hear people talking about "liberal ideas," I am always astounded that men should love to fool themselves with empty sounds. An idea should never be liberal; it must be vigorous, positive, and without loose ends so that it may fulfill its divine mission and be productive. The proper place for liberality is in the realm of the emotions.
• A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
• What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
• Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
• Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
• Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension.
• The true, prescriptive artist strives after artistic truth; the lawless artist, following blind instinct, after an appearance of naturalness. The one leads to the highest peaks of art, the other to its lowest depths.
• As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.