Wit is the appearance, the external flash, of fantasy. Hence its divinity and the similarity to the wit of mysticism.

An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.

The French Revolution, Fichte's Theory of Knowledge, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age. Whoever takes offence at this combination, and whoever does not consider a revolution important unless it is blatant and palpable, has not yet risen to the lofty and broad vantage point of the history of mankind.

Think of something finite molded into the infinite, and you think of man.

Combine the extremes, and you will have the true center.

There is no self-knowledge except historical self-knowledge. No one knows what he is if he doesn't know what his contemporaries are.

Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.