It is always a sign of an unproductive time when it concerns itself with petty and technical aspects [in philology], and likewiseit is a sign of an unproductive person to pursue such trifles.

What one doesn't understand one doesn't possess.

I will say with Lorenzo de Medici that those who do not hope for another life are always dead to this one.

Create, artist, do not talk.

We must not take the faults of our youth with us into old age, for age brings along its own defects.

There are three classes of readers; some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged. Its numbers are very small.

Who are you then?" "I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.