A good preface must be the root and the square of the book at the same time.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelOriginal love never appears in pure form, but in manifold veils and shapes, such as confidence, humility, reverence, serenity, asfaithfulness and modesty, as gratefulness; but primarily as longing and wistful melancholy.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelFrom what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelConsidered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelIn the ancients, one sees the accomplished letter of entire poetry: in the moderns, one has the presentiment of the spirit in becoming.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelThe naive is what is or appears to be natural, individual, or classical to the point of irony or to the point of continuous alternation of self-creation and self-destruction. If it is only instinct, then it is childlike, childish, or silly; if it is only intention, it becomes affectation.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel