It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

Music is the answer to the mystery of life. The most profound of all the arts, It expresses the deepest thoughts of life.

What give all that is tragic, whatever its form, the characteristic of the sublime, is the first inkling of the knowledge that the world and life can give no satisfaction, and are not worth our investment in them. The tragic spirit consists in this. Accordingly it leads to resignation.

Poetry is related to philosophy as experience is related to empirical science. Experience makes us acquainted with the phenomenon in the particular and by means of examples, science embraces the whole of phenomena by means of general conceptions. So poetry seeks to make us acquainted with the Platonic Ideas through the particular and by means of examples. Philosophy aims at teaching, as a whole and in general, the inner nature of things which expresses itself in these. One sees even here that poetry bears more the character of youth, philosophy that of old age.

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.