He probably was mediocre after all, though in a very honorable sense of that word.

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours.

What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life.

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

What pleases the public is lively and vivid delineation which makes no demands on the intellect; but passionate and absolutist youth can only be enthralled by a problem.

For to be poised against fatality, to meet adverse conditions gracefully, is more than simple endurance; it is an act of aggression, a positive triumph.

Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constant under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph.