Overall, rocks, wood and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its innermost depths.

It is the sky that makes the earth so lovely at sunrise, and so splendid at sunset. In the one it breathes over the earth the crystal-like ether, in the other the liquid gold.

We are still in Eden; the wall that shuts us out is our own ignorance and folly.

To walk with nature as a poet is the necessary condition of a perfect artist.

How lovely are the portals of the night, when stars come out to watch the daylight die.

Amid those scenes of solitude... the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things.

None know how often the hand of God is seen in a wilderness but them that rove it for a man's life.

If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced either in Painting or Poetry

Nothing is invented and brought to perfection all at once.

I never succeed in painting scenes, however beautiful, immediately upon returning from them. I must wait for a time to draw a veil over the common details.

How I have walked... day after day, and all alone, to see if there was not something among the old things which was new!

Somehow, some way, every person in the arts has to find an accommodation with disappointment and embarrassment. They are the pollen in the air we breathe.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye.

In many cases, people who win a Nobel prize, their work slows down after that because of the distractions. Yes, fame is rewarding, but it's a pity if it keeps you from doing the work you are good at.

Today, no matter where I am going, no matter what I am doing, it is my dominant intent to be good to me.

Perseverance is neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy; for it seems to be only the enduring of certain inclinations and opinions which men neither give themselves nor take away from themselves.

Opposites are cures for opposites.

The more you expose yourself as a celebrity, the less interesting you are to watch in your work, because if you're putting yourself out there all the time, you're not holding anything back.

English, I know you ... you are German with a license to kill.

When I'm alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR.