It is with artworks as it is with wine: it is much better when we do not need either one, when we stick with water, and when out of our own inner fire, the inner sweetness of our own soul, we turn the water over and over again into wine ourselves.

People who, out of an inborn moderation, leave every glass standing only half-emptied refuse to admit that everything in the world has its sediments and dregs.

I hate you most because you attract, but are not strong enough to pull me to you.

All names of good and evil are images; they do not speak out, they only hint. He is a fool who seeks knowledge from them.

Whoever has not two-thirds of his time to himself, is a slave.

Invisible threads are the strongest ties.

People buy their necessities in shops and have to pay dearly for them because they have to assist in paying for what is also on sale there but only rarely finds purchasers: the luxury and amusement goods. So it is that luxury continually imposes a tax on the simple people who have to do without it.