Artists have a double relationship towards nature: they are her master and her slave at the same time. They are her slave in so far as they must work with means of this world so as to be understood; her master in so far as they subject these means to their higher goals and make them subservient to them.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWe do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheMan is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe iron hand of necessity commands, and her stern decree is supreme law, to which the gods even must submit. In deep silence rules the uncounselled sister of eternal fate. Whatever she lays upon thee, endure; perform whatever she commands.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe