The spirit of poetry combines the profundity of the philosopher and the child's delight in bright pictures.

To declaim freedom verses seems like a poem within a poem; freedom requires guns, it requires arms, but no feet.

It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.

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

It's the misfortune of German authors that not a single one of them dares to expose his true character. Everyone thinks that he has to be better than he is.

Feeling and thinking are actually the blind man who carries the lame.

The character of the crowds is made up of mimicry and hostility.