When man does not have firm, calm lines on the horizon of his life- mountain and forest lines, as it were- then a man's innermost will becomes agitated, preoccupied, and wistful.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.

... art approaches as a saving sorceress, expert at healing. She alone knows how to turn these nauseous thoughts about the horror or absurdity of existence into notions with which one can live.

Some mothers need happy children; others need unhappy ones-otherwise they cannot prove their maternal virtues.

Ultimately one loves one's desires and not that which is desired.

It is only because man believes himself to be free, not because he is free, that he experiences remorse and pricks of conscience.

In Bach there is still too much crude Christianity, crude Germanism, crude scholasticism; he stands on the threshold of European (modern) music, but he looks back from there to the Middle Ages.