Why do comparisons of words and tone poems (poetry and music) never take into consideration that the word is a mere signifier, but that the sound, aside from being a signifier, is also an object?

Bunglers and pedants judge art according to genre; they approve of this and dismiss that genre, but instead of genres, the open-minded connoisseur appreciates only individual works.

In Germany, a certain artistic sense is fairly common, but the artist's sense is foreign there.

What a pathetic creature is man! His senses are awakened by the hope for the very thing whose consummation puts him to sleep.

They are miserly, the princes of Austria, you need not grieve about it; they may not donate anything, but they allow themselves tobe fleeced, the good lords.

A pious woman's neighbor, a philanthropist's child, a liberal's servant--these three have a hard life.

Trousers and the reputation of not being a thief are similar in the following way: There is no particular honor in having them butonce they are lost, everyone thinks they have the right to insult us.