Is it true that one travels in order to know mankind? It is easier to get to know other people at home, but abroad one gets to know oneself.

Mankind is getting smarter every day. Actually, it only seems so. At least we are making progress. We're progressing, to be sure, ever more deeply into the forest.

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.

When the theater gates open, a mob pours inside, and it is the poet's task to turn it into an audience.

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 receiving an order, many servants repeat their "yes" numerous times, especially the lazy ones.

I cannot be exacting because I respect myself.