Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.

There is a courtesy of the heart; it is allied to love. From its springs the purest courtesy in the outward behavior.

If I work incessantly to the last, nature owes me another form of existence when the present one collapses.

It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.

If a poet would work politically, he must give himself up to a party; and so soon as he does that, he is lost as a poet.

Alas, that we should be so unwilling to listen to the still and holy yearnings of the heart! A god whispers quite softly in our breast, softly yet audibly; telling us what we ought to seek and what to shun.

The sickness of the heart is most easily got rid of by complaining and soothing confidence.