Let the will embrace the highest ideals freely and with infinite strength, but let action first take hold of what lies closest.

At certain times, men regard poetry merely as a bright flame, but to women it was, and always will be, a warm fire.

Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.

What's the meaning of all the pious clamor, condemning cocks and hens? Those who have no teeth are the greatest meat-haters.

Only by himself, with one acre and a house, will a dunce be a dunce. Once he manages to gain power, he'll turn into a scoundrel.

Boundless in your charity, but shrewd and cautious as a lender, you delight all those today whom you made beggars the day before.

Those who want to row on the ocean of human knowledge do not get far, and the storm drives those out of their course who set sail.