God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.

Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.

Verily, I do not want to be like the ropemakers: They drag out their threads and always walk backwards.

Why does man not see things? He is himself standing in the way: he conceals things.

So long as the spectator has to figure out the meaning of this or that person, or the presuppositions of this or that conflict of inclinations and purposes, he cannot become completely absorbed in the activities and sufferings of the chief characters or feel breathless pity and fear.

What does your conscience say? — 'You should become the person you are'.

The most unendurable thing, to be sure, the really terrible thing, would be a life without habits, a life which continually required improvisation.