Faith is like private capital, stored in one's own house. It is like a public savings bank or loan office, from which individuals receive assistance in their days of need; but here the creditor quietly takes his interest for himself.

To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.

If we take people only as they are, then we make them worse; if we treat them as if they were what they should be, then we bring them to where they can be brought.

When translating one must proceed up to the intranslatable; only then one becomes aware of the foreign nation and the foreign tongue.

The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.

A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.

Necessity is cruel, but it is the only test of inward strength. Every fool may live according to his own likings.