"Everyone looks at what I am looking at,” said Lamennais at Saint-Malo, as he stood on the seashore in a storm, "but no one sees what I see.”

Let your mind become a lens, thanks to the converging rays of attention; let your soul be all intent on whatever it is that is established in your mind as a dominant, wholly absorbing idea.

It is related of Titian that he sketched his pictures boldly, worked them up to a certain point and then put the painting against the wall until it had become like a stranger to him. Then he took it up again, and viewing it with a "hostile eye,” he obliged it to turn into a masterpiece. When you have roughed out a piece of work, you must put it

Try to discern in every occurrence the effort that befits you, the discipline you are capable of, the sacrifice you can make, the subject you can deal with, the thesis you can write, the book that you can read with profit, the public you can serve.

the wise provision of solitude,

Each one should watch himself, note what helps him, keep at hand together his remedies for the sicknesses of the soul and not hesitate to go back and back to the same cordial or the same antidote until these have utterly lost their efficacy.

The discipline of some occupation is an excellent school; it bears fruit in the hours of studious leisure.

Some people have recourse to stimulants; but that is a fatal method. The effect is only momentary; it grows less with use; the quantity has to be increased daily; and the progression ends in physical and mental degeneracy.

It is a painful thing to say to oneself: by choosing one road I am turning my back on a thousand others.