but, nevertheless, having to turn away his eyes when the sun appeared,
unable to bear the splendour he had awaited with so much desire.

568

We praise the eighteenth century for concerning itself chiefly with
analysis. The task remaining to the nineteenth is to discover the false
syntheses which prevail, and to analyse their contents anew.

569

A school may be regarded as a single individual who talks to himself for
a hundred years, and takes an extraordinary pleasure in his own being,
however foolish and silly it may be.

570

In science it is a service of the highest merit to seek out those
fragmentary truths attained by the ancients, and to develop them
further.

571

If a man devotes himself to the promotion of science, he is firstly
opposed, and then he is informed that his ground is already occupied. At
first men will allow no value to what we tell them, and then they behave
as if they knew it all themselves.

572

Nature fills all space with her limitless productivity. If we observe
merely our own earth, everything that we call evil and unfortunate is so
because Nature cannot provide room for everything that comes into
existence, and still less endow it with permanence.

573

Everything that comes into being seeks room for itself and desires
duration: hence it drives something else from its place and shortens its
duration.

574

There is so much of cryptogamy in phanerogamy that centuries will not
decipher it.

575

What a true saying it is that he who wants to deceive mankind must
before all things make absurdity plausible.

576

The further knowledge advances, the nearer we come to the unfathomable:
the more we know how to use our knowledge, the better we see that the
unfathomable is of no practical use.

577

The finest achievement for a man of thought is to have fathomed what may
be fathomed, and quietly to revere the unfathomable.

578

The discerning man who acknowledges his limitations is not far off
perfection.

579

There are two things of which a man cannot be careful enough: of
obstinacy if he confines himself to his own line of thought; of
incompetency, if he goes beyond it.

580

Incompetency is a greater obstacle to perfection than one would think.

581

The century advances; but every individual begins anew.

582

What friends do with us and for us is a real part of our life; for it
strengthens and advances our personality. The assault of our enemies