Ideas are infinite, original, and lively divine thoughts.

The two basic maxims of the so-called historical criticism are the postulate of the common and the axiom of the ordinary. Postulate of the common: everything really great, good, and beautiful, is improbable, since it is extraordinary and therefore at least suspect. Axiom of the ordinary: our conditions and environment must have existed everywhere, for they are really so natural.

Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.

God is each truly and exalted thing, therefore the individual himself to the highest degree. But are not nature and the world individuals?

If the mystical lovers of the arts, who consider all criticism dissection and all dissection destruction of enjoyment, thought logically, an exclamation like "Goodness alive!" would be the best criticism of the most deserving work of art. There are critiques which say nothing but that, only they do so more extensively.

One mentions many artists who are actually art works of nature.

Beauty is that which is simultaneously attractive and sublime.