I shouldn't precisely have chosen madness if there had been any choice, but once such a thing has taken hold of you, you can't very well get out of it.

No, no thought to the winnings. One loves because one loves.

I believe it is one's duty to paint the rich and magnificent aspects of nature. We need gaiety and happiness, hope and love.

Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.

You know, what makes the prison disappear is every deep, serious attachment. To be friends, to be brothers, to love; that opens the prison through sovereign power, through a most powerful spell. But he who doesn't have that remains in death. But where sympathy springs up again, life springs up again.

Both she and I have grief enough and trouble enough, but as for regrets – neither of us have any.

Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.