Do you think that it is possible to have a mere taste of commonness? Either one hates it or makes common cause with it.

Transcendence: that which transcends experience.

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.

Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks in vain for Socrates.

The noble woman is half a man, even a complete one. Only their imperfections make them women.

Lap-dogs and blood-hounds enjoy the greatest respect at court; house-dogs and no dogs at all are not even considered.

The Germans believe that, no matter where, they can get by on knowledge alone. Art, however, requires skill.