Quote collection
353 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Even now, nature is the only flame, on which the poetic spirit feeds; from it alone it draws all its power, to it alone it speaks even in the artificial, in the man engaged in culture."
"Man is made of the wholly common, and custom is his nurse; woe then to them who lay irreverent hands on his old house-furniture, the dear inheritance from his forefathers: For time consecrates, and what is gray with age becomes religion."
"Satisfied if they themselves can escape from the hard labour of thought, they willingly abandon to others the guardianship of their thoughts."
"Stern is the visage of necessity."
"Will it, and set to work briskly."
"Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without running into extremes; we have frequently to exhaust the part of error, and even of folly, before we work our way up to the noble goal of tranquil wisdom."
"Thus Arm in Arm with thee I dare defy my century into the lists."
"To know thyself--in others self-concern; Would'st thou know others? read thyself--and learn!"
"I speak with the Eternal through the instrument of nature, through the world's history: I read the soul of the artist in his Apollo."
"It is at the approach of extreme danger when a hollow puppet can accomplish nothing, that power falls into the mighty hands of nature, of the spirit giant-born, who listens only to himself, and knows nothing of compacts."
"Toil of science swells the wealth of art."
"Ah, to that far distant strand Bridge there was not to convey, Not a bark was near at hand, Yet true love soon found the way."
"To the fool-king belongs the world."
"Cling to thy native land, for it is the land of thy fathers?"
"Emulation is a noble and just passion, full of appreciation."
"Fear of death is worse than dying."
"You worthy critics, or whatever you may call yourselves, are ashamed or afraid of the momentary and passing madness which is found in all real creators, the longer or shorter duration of which distinguishes the thinking artist from the dreamer. Hence your complaints of unfruitfulness, for you reject too soon and discriminate too severely."
"O'er Ocean, with a thousand masts, sails forth the stripling bold- One boat, hard rescued from the deep, draws into port the old!"
"Virtue has her heroes too As well as Fame and Fortune."
"History, insofar as it accustoms human beings to comprehend the whole of the past and to hasten forward with its conclusions into the far future, conceals the boundaries of birth and death, which enclose the life of the human being so narrowly and oppressively, and with a kind of optical illusion, expands his short existence into endless space, leading the individual imperceptibly over into humanity."