Our age believed herself pregnant with auspicious progeny, but when her hour came, it turned out to be dropsy.

Transcendence: that which transcends experience.

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

As far as the arts and the sciences are concerned, the German mind appreciates most highly that which it does not understand of the latter, and that which it does not enjoy of the former.

When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental — far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.

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

Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power.