The decline in literature indicates a decline in the nation. The two keep pace in their downward tendency.

And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

Neither a work of nature nor one of art we get to know when they have been finished; we must surprise them in the process of beingcreated so as to understand them to some degree.

Man errs, till he has ceased to strive.

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

He who possesses art and science has religion; he who does not possess them, needs religion.