One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry.

We should never invoke the spirit of antiquity as our authority. Spirits are peculiar things; they cannot be grasped with the hands and be held up before others. Spirits reveal themselves only to spirits. The most direct and concise method would be, in this case as well, to prove the possession of the only redeeming faith by good works.

If you want to see mankind fully, look at a family. Within the family minds become organically one, and for this reason the family is total poetry.

Every form of life is in its origin not natural, but divine and human; for it must spring from love, just as there can be no reason without spirit.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

Religion is usually nothing but a supplement to or even a substitute for education, and nothing is religious in the strict sense which is not a product of freedom. Thus one can say: The freer, the more religious; and the more education, the less religion.

Religion and morals are symmetrically opposed, just like poetry and philosophy.