At All Times It Has Not Been

The Hardest Thing Is To See What's Under Your Very Eyes.

It Used To Happen, And Still Happens, To Me To Take No Pleasure In A Work Of Art At The First Sight Of It, Because It Is Too Much For Me; But If I Suspect Any Merit In It, I Try To Get At It; And Then I Never Fail To Make The Most Gratifying Discoveries--to Find New Qualities In The Work Itself And New Faculties In Myself.

Mountains Cannot Be Surmounted Except By Winding Paths.

The Flowers Of Life Are But Visionary. How Many Pass Away And Leave No Trace Behind! How Few Yield Any Fruit,--and The Fruit Itself, How Rarely Does It Ripen! And Yet There Are Flowers Enough; And Is It Not Strange, My Friend, That We Should Suffer The Little That Does Really Ripen To Rot, Decay, And Perish Unenjoyed?

There Is Nothing More Frightful Than An Active Ignorance. [ger., Es Ist Nichts Schrecklicher Als Eine Thatige Unwissenheit.]