The strength of a love is always misjudged if we evaluate it by its immediate cause and not the stress that went before it, the dark and hollow space full of disappointment and loneliness that precedes all the great events in the heart's history.

The free, independent spirit who commits himself to no dogma and will not decide in favor of any party has no homestead on earth.

One must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others.

He was, like everyone of a strongly erotic disposition, twice as good, twice as much himself when he knew that women liked him, just as many actors find their most ardent vein when they sense that they have cast their spell over the audience, the breathing mass of spectators before them.

It would be foolhardy to count on the conscience of the world.

But the creative person is subject to a different, higher law than mere national law. Whoever has to create a work, whoever has tobring about a discovery or deed which will further the cause of all of humanity, no longer has his home in his native land but rather in his work.

When they are preparing for war, those who rule by force speak most copiously about peace until they have completed the mobilization process.