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

It is as deadly for a mind to have a system as to have none. Therefore it will have to decide to combine both.

A classification is a definition comprising a system of definitions.

An artist is he who has his center within himself. He who lacks this must choose a particular leader and mediator outside of himself, not forever, however, but only at first. For man cannot exist without a living center, and if he does not have it within himself, he may seek it only in a human being. Only a human being and his center can stimulate and awaken that of another.

From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be.

Separate religion from morality, and you have the true energy for evil within man, the terrible, cruel, devastating, and inhuman principle which naturally lies in his spirit. Here the division of the indivisible punishes itself most awfully.

Good drama must be drastic.