In adversity people regain all the virtues which they lose in prosperity (30 January 1855) - Eugène Delacroix

I saw a procession of ants moving along the path in a way which I challenge any naturalist to explain. The entire tribe seemed to be moving in formation as if they were emigrating, with a few worker-ants going along the column in the opposite direction. Where could they have been going?
We are all shut up together higgledy-piggledy, animals, men, and plants, in this vast box they call the universe. We claim to be able to read the stars and to make conjectures about the past and the future, which are both beyond the range of our vision, and yet we understand nothing of the things in front of our eyes. (Tuesday 30 April 1850).

Beavers will invent a new way of building dams before architects accept a new method or a new style in their art (23 August 1854).

What moves those of genius, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.