Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

At first I was almost about to despair, I thought I never could bear it — but I did I bear it. The question remains: how?

That was only the beginning - where one burns books, one will finally also burn people.

The Portuguese, Dutch and English have been for a long time year after year, shipping home the treasures of India in their big vessels. We Germans have been all along been left to watch it. Germany would do likewise, but hers would be treasures of spiritual knowledge.

Round my cradle shimmered the last moonbeams of the eighteenth century and the first morning rays of the nineteenth.

The sun's sweet ray is hovering discovered.

Out of my great sorrows, I make little songs.