An artist is he for whom the goal and center of life is to form his mind.

Just as a child is really a thing that wants to become a man, so is the poem an object of nature that wants to become an object ofart.

The naive is what is or appears to be natural, individual, or classical to the point of irony or to the point of continuous alternation of self-creation and self-destruction. If it is only instinct, then it is childlike, childish, or silly; if it is only intention, it becomes affectation.

In order to be able to write well upon a subject, one must have ceased to be interested in it; the thought which is to be soberlyexpressed must already be entirely past and no longer be one's actual concern.

Many a witty inspiration is like the surprising reunion of befriended thoughts after a long separation.

Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.

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