Genius resembles a bell; in order to ring it must be suspended into pure air, and when a foreign body touches it, its joyful toneis silenced.

You say I'm small? I certainly can relate, although it is a matter of perspective. The distance is deceptive, my friend, you standtoo low.

In the arts, foolhardiness is always harmful; even worse, however, is clumsiness.

The Germans believe that, no matter where, they can get by on knowledge alone. Art, however, requires skill.

I look around me and nowhere do I see a stamp of disapproval with which nature marked a woman's candid brow.

No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.

Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun.