Those only obtain love, for the most part, who seek it not.

There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it.

The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

A king there was once reigning, Who had a goodly flea, Him loved he without feigning, As his own son were he!

Everything perfect in its kind has to transcend its own kind, it must become something different and incomparable. In some notes the nightingale is still a bird; then it rises above its class and seems to suggest to every winged creature what singing is truly like.