I did not want to be a tree a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body we as audience must see ourselves not the imitated behavior of everyday actions not the phenomenon of nature not exotic creatures from another planet but something of the miracle that is a human being.

We are a people that have always celebrated other people's success so long as we always had the opportunity to meet that success ourselves. That is the American nature. That is the American character. That is one of the things that makes us different from the rest of the world. And I'm afraid we could lose that or are on the verge of losing that.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

Nature never deceives us it is we who deceive ourselves.

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because in the last analysis we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to the feeling for the things themselves for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections constitute the perfection of human nature.

We talk of our mastery of nature which sounds very grand but the fact is we respectfully adapt ourselves first to her ways.

My progress was rendered delightful by the sylvan elegance of the groves chearful meadows and high distant forests which in grand order presented themselves to view.

For whatever reason not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And believe me it is a gift.