What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.

Every man must form himself as a particular being, seeking, however, to attain that general idea of which all mankind are constituents.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent.

Faust: Who holds the devil, let him hold him well, He hardly will be caught a second time.

When intelligent and sensible people despise knowledge in their old age, it is only because they have asked too much of it and of themselves.

It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel - they get to know each other better.