And so in childish days we see word and
picture in continual balance; in the book of the law and in the way of
salvation, in the Bible and in the spelling-book. When something was
spoken which could not be pictured, and something pictured which could
not be spoken, all went well; but mistakes were often made, and a word
was used instead of a picture; and thence arose those monsters of
symbolical mysticism, which are doubly an evil.

156

For the man of the world a collection of anecdotes and maxims is of the
greatest value, if he knows how to intersperse the one in his
conversation at fitting moments, and remember the other when a case
arises for their application.

157

When you lose interest in anything, you also lose the memory for it.

158

The world is a bell with a crack in it; it rattles, but does not ring.

159

The importunity of young dilettanti must be borne with good-will; for as
they grow old they become the truest worshippers of Art and the Master.

160

People have to become really bad before they care for nothing but
mischief, and delight in it.

161

Clever people are the best encyclopaedia.

162

There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do
anything worth doing.

163

If I know my relation to myself and the outer world, I call it truth.
Every man can have his own peculiar truth; and yet it is always the
same.

164

No one is the master of any truly productive energy; and all men must
let it work on by itself.

165

A man never understands how anthropomorphic he is.

166

A difference which offers nothing to the understanding is no difference
at all.

167

A man cannot live for every one; least of all for those with whom he
would not care to live.

168

If a man sets out to study all the laws, he will have no time left to
transgress them.

169

Things that are mysterious are not yet miracles.

170

'Converts are not in my good books.'

171

A frivolous impulsive encouragement of problematical talents was a
mistake of my early years; and I have never been able to abandon it
altogether.

172

I should like to be honest with you, without our falling out; but it
will not do. You act wrongly, and fall between two stools; you win no
adherents and lose your friends. What is to be the end of it?

173

It is all one whether you are of high or of humble origin. You will
always have to pay for your humanity.

174

When I hear peop