Mysteries are feminine; they like to veil themselves but still want to be seen and divined.

The need to raise itself above humanity is humanity's main characteristic.

The following are the universally fundamental laws of literary communication: 1. one must have something to communicate; 2. one must have someone to whom to communicate it; 3. one must really communicate it, not merely express it for oneself alone. Otherwise it would be more to the point to remain silent.

A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it.

Those works whose ideal has not as much living reality and, as it were, personality as the beloved one or a friend had better remain unwritten. They would at least never become works of art.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

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