To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill.
Category Archive: 1772
A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation; but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind.
Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.
It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.
What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.
The poetry of this one is called philosophical, of that one philological, of a third rhetorical, and so on. Which is then the poetic poetry?
Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism.
Religion can emerge in all forms of feeling: here wild anger, there the sweetest pain; here consuming hatred, there the childlike smile of serene humility.
Where no gods are, spectres rule.