Let none, then, take it in bad part of me, that I myself have loved this truth and pursued it. I was forced to seek it, for it did not seek me. If a man wishes to see a foreign city, it is no good for him to stay at home with his head on his pillow.
Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (1493-1541) German alchemist and physician [Bombast von Hohenheim]
A Treatise Concerning the Medicinal Philosophic Stone, Preface
Reprinted in Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, Part 2, by Arthur Edward Waite (2002).