Quote collection
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"Man, be he who he may, experiences a last piece of good fortune and a last day. [Ger., Der Mensch erfahrt, er sei auch wer er mag, Ein letztes Gluck und einen letzten Tag.]"
"The Evil One has left, the evil ones remain. [Ger., Den Bosen sind sie los, die Bosen sind geblieben.]"
"And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night. [Ger., Und kunftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzahlig aus der Nacht.]"
"For to give is the business of the rich. [Lat., Denn Geben ist Sache des Reichen.]"
"A lot of people do not care about your money until nearly penniless. They also do so with time"
"What must the English and French think of the language of our philosophers when we Germans do not understand it ourselves?"
"Should I not be proud, when for twenty years I have had to admit to myself that the great Newton and all the mathematicians and noble calculators along with him were involved in a decisive error with respect to the doctrine of color, and that I among millions was the only one who knew what was right in this great subject of nature?"
"There is a great difference, whether the poet seeks the particular for the sake of the general or sees the general in the particular. From the former procedure there ensues allegory, in which the particular serves only as illustration, as example of the general. The latter procedure, however, is genuinely the nature of poetry; it expresses something particular, without thinking of the general or pointing to it."
"Analysis and synthesis are both as necessary to the thinking spirit as inspiration and expiration to the organism."
"You shall abstain, shall abstain. That is the eternal song."
"Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling."
"I have always paid attention to the merits of my enemies, and found it an advantage."
"The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen."
"Everything in the world may be endured, except only a succession of prosperous days. [Ger., Alles in der Welt lasst sich ertragen, Nur nicht eine Reihe von schonen Tagen.]"
"Whoso shrinks from ideas ends by having nothing but sensations."
"Without haste! without rest! Bind the motto to thy breast! Bear it with thee as a spell; Storm or sunshine , guard it well."
"Try novelties for salesman's bait, For novelty wins everyone."
"Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely."
"A plant is like a self-willed man, out of whom we can obtain all which we desire, if we will only treat him his own way."
"To act is easy; to think is hard."