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

We do not see God, but everywhere we see something divine; first and most typically in the center of a reasonable man, in the depth of a living human product. You can directly feel and think nature, the universe, but not the Godhead. Only the man among men can poetize and think divinely and live with religion.

He who has religion will speak poetry. But philosophy is the tool with which to seek and discover religion.

Every complete man has his genius. True virtue is genius.

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

Wit is absolutely sociable spirit or aphoristic genius.

As the ancient commander addressed his soldiers before battle, so should the moralist speak to men in the struggle of the era.