“Lose this day loitering – ’twill be the same story
To-morrow – and the next more dilatory;
Each indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days,
Are you in earnest? seize this very minute –
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated –
Begin it, and then the work will be completed!”

These lines are reputed to come from Goethe’s Faust (there is some disagreement about this).

While all their friends were toiling at their books
These two were trying other ways of learning.
Reading love’s grammar in each other’s looks,
Glances to them were marks which they were earning.
Their minds were freed from spelling by love’s spell,
They practised, writing notes full of caress;
The others learned to count – while they could tell
That nothing ever counts but tenderness.

By Nizami, translated by Rudolph Gelpke
Written in 1188.

Layla means night; Majnun means madman.