If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself.

In the work of art the truth of an entity has set itself to work. ‘To set’ means here: to bring to a stand. Some particular entity, a pair of peasant shoes, comes in the work to stand in the light of its being. The being of the being comes into the steadiness of its shining. The nature of art would then be this: the truth of being setting itself to work.

The human being is not the lord of beings, but the shepherd of Being.

There is no such thing as an empty word, only one that is worn out yet remains full.

I know that everything essential and great originated from the fact that the human being had a homeland and was rooted in tradition.

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.

I take great pleasure, every day, in seeing my work deeply rooted in our native soil.