Two soldiers and a villain are enough to blow up the rights of the citizens.

I would love to be able to write a tragedy in my imagination--it would turn into a masterpiece.

I know how ingratitude burns, how falsehood tortures, for I have been deceived in friendship and in love; I have learned to lose and to resign myself.

The uneducated person perceives only the individual phenomenon, the partly educated person the rule, and the educated person the exception.

The way in which modern German poetry follows theories reminds me of pupils who, scolded by their teacher for their insubordination, justify themselves by saying that they invented new rules of propriety according to which they are quite well- behaved.

Grief, first take on shape! what is shapeless causes fear and torment but when the enemy materializes, half the victory is won.

Once you have looked at the land from atop the Kahlenberg, you will understand what I write and who I am.