There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They are likethin-skinned insects whose visible play of muscles seem to make them deformed, though in fact, everything soon turns to its normal shape again.
E. T. A. HoffmannEvery year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.
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. Hoffmann