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

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.

Because Christianity is a religion of death, it could be treated with the utmost realism, and it could have its orgies, just likethe old religion of nature and life.

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.

If you want to penetrate into the heart of physics, then let yourself be initiated into the mysteries of poetry.

Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.

Without poetry, religion becomes obscure, false, and malignant; without philosophy, licentious in all wantonness, and lascivious to the point of self-castration.