A so-called happy marriage corresponds to love as a correct poem to an improvised song.

Whoever has not arrived at the clear insight that there might be greatness entirely outside his own sphere for which he has no understanding, whoever does not have at least a dim inkling in which area of the human spirit this greatness might be situated: he is within his own sphere either without genius, or he has not educated himself up to the point of the classical attitude.

Duty is for Kant the One and All. Out of the duty of gratitude, he claims, one has to defend and esteem the ancients; and only out of duty has he become a great man.

The whole history of modern poetry is a continuous commentary on the short text of philosophy: every art should become science, and every science should become art; poetry and philosophy should be united.

The subject of history is the gradual realization of all that is practically necessary.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.