“You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track — the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on.”

Letter 60, to Robert Trevelyan, 28 October 1905
Selected Letters (1983-1985)

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Letter 60, to Robert Trevelyan, 28 October 1905
Selected Letters (1983-1985)
Context: You can gather however that I know I am not a real artist, and at the same time am fearfully serious over my work and willing to sweat at atmosphere if it helps me wo what I want. What I want, I think, is the sentimental, but the sentimental reached by no easy beaten track—I cannot explain myself properly, for you must remember (I forget it myself) that though 'clever' I have a small and cloudy brain, and cannot clear it by talking or reading philosophy.

Song; the title is variously given as Tears in my ears, I've got tears in my ears and I've got tears in my ears from lyin' on my back in my bed while I cry over you.

Born This Way, written by Lady Gaga and Jeppe Laursen
Song lyrics, Born This Way (2011)

6 April 1856 (p. 312)
1831 - 1863, Delacroix' 'Journal' (1847 – 1863)

essentially hasn't changed over all these years. When I wake up in the morning, for those first few moments before I remember where I am or when I am, I still feel the same way I did when I woke up at the age of five.
Life After God (1994)

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Quote of Friedrich, 1821; as cited in Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790-1840 (2000) by Andreas Schönle, p. 108, from memoirs of Vasily Zhukovsky
Variant translation: I have to stay alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature.
This answer of Friedrich is recorded by Vasily Zhukovsky who asked the painter in 1821 to travel together to Switzerland
1794 - 1840