When one is polite in German, one lies.

We gladly put antiquity above our age but not posterity. Only a father doesn't begrudge his son's talent.

Chess is the touchstone of intellect.

The theater has often been at variance with the pulpit; they ought not to quarrel. How much is it to be wished that in both the celebration of nature and of God were intrusted to none but men of noble minds.

No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.

Were the eye not of the sun, How could we behold the light? If God's might and ours were not as one, How could His work enchant our sight?

The one who acts is always without conscience; nobody has a conscience but the contemplative person.