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

Dilettantes appreciate the work, professors the master at the same time.

Genius differs from talent not by the amount of original thoughts, but by making the latter fertile and by positioning them properly, in other words, by integrating everything into a whole, whereas talent produces only fragments, no matter how beautiful.

Never expect any recognition here--the system prohibits it. The cross is not affixed to the genius, no, the genius is affixed to the cross.

Those whom the gods chose as their property must not consort with mortals.

The first indication of a young person's growing smarter is that he no longer understands the things which he used to consider quite intelligible and self-evident.

Captivating the spirit of the age is a matter of great talent; being swept away by it characterizes an average mind. The two are as different from one another as activity and passivity.