“Know that the roads to fortune are always uncertain.”

Warning young writers that merit cannot guarantee success · Autobiographical fragment, Chapter IV (published posthumously, 1877)

• Fame
• Truth

“What teacher has ever endeavored to instil into his pupils the value of weeds or grasses, of animal or vegetable nature... the wonders of space, or of the seasons; of night, of silence?”

Calling for education to include wonder, observation and silence · Autobiographical fragment, Chapter III (published posthumously, 1877)

• Education
• Nature

“Never let us forget the past—the wise past, that has fed us, and taught us, and rendered us what we are. Rather, kneel down and thank the rich and faded centuries, that have left such jewels behind them.”

Urging gratitude for the intellectual inheritance of earlier ages · Preface to Recollections of Men of Letters (published 1877)

• Art
• Memory
• Time