When the boy begins to understand that the visible point is preceded by an invisible point, that the shortest distance between two points is conceived as a straight line before it is ever drawn with pencil and paper...the fountain of all thought has been opened to him...the philosopher can reveal him nothing new, as a geometrician he has discovered the basis of all thought.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

The child, offered the mother's breast, Will not in the beginning grab it; But soon it clings to it with zest. And thus at wisdom's copious breasts You'll drink each day with greater zest.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

I have often reaped what others have sowed. My work is the work of a collective being that bears the name Goethe.

One is never deceived; one deceives oneself.

Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.