Human beings ought not to draw in their antennae at every ungentle touch, like supersensitive insects.
E. T. A. HoffmannThe human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our bosoms! No solar orbit hems it in, the inexhaustible wealth of the total visible creation is outweighed by its riches!
E. T. A. HoffmannNot a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain.
E. T. A. HoffmannEverything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, which turns round in an everlasting circle like the wheel of fortune. He who reaps praise today is overwhelmed with biting censure tomorrow; today we trample under foot the man who tomorrow will be raised far above us.
E. T. A. Hoffmann