The subject of history is the gradual realization of all that is practically necessary.

A definition of poetry can only determine what poetry should be and not what poetry actually was and is; otherwise the most concise formula would be: Poetry is that which at some time and some place was thus named.

About no subject is there less philosophizing than about philosophy.

God the father, and even more often the devil himself, appears at times in the place of fate in the modern tragedy. Why is it thatthis has not induced any scholar to develop a theory of the diabolical genre?

Since poetry is infinitely valuable, I do not understand why it should be more valuable than this or that which is also infinitelyvaluable. There are artists who perhaps do not think art to be too great, for this is impossible, and yet they are not free enough to be able to rise above their own best accomplishments.

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

Art and works of art do not make an artist; sense and enthusiasm and instinct do.