Modest humility is beauty's crown.

Even now, nature is the only flame, on which the poetic spirit feeds; from it alone it draws all its power, to it alone it speaks even in the artificial, in the man engaged in culture.

Egotism erects its center in itself; love places it out of itself in the axis of the universal whole. Love aims at unity, egotism at solitude. Love is the citizen ruler of a flourishing republic, egotism is a despot in a devastated creation. Egotism sows for gratitude, love for the ungrateful. Love gives, egotism lends; and love does this before the throne of judicial truth, indifferent if for the enjoyment of the following moment, or with the view to a martyr's crown--indifferent whether the reward is in this life or in the next.

Even the weak become strong when they are united.

But how is the artist to protect himself against the corruption of the age which besets him on all sides?

It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long.

Men show no mercy and expect no mercy, when honor calls, or when they fight for their idols or their gods.