The main reason why men and women make different aesthetic judgments is the fact that the latter, generally incapable of abstraction, only admire what meets their complete approval.
My anger thought you too ignoble for my love, and close examination finds you too magnificent, and only equals are joined together smoothly.
I’d wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.
Let the famous not denounce fame. Far from being empty and meaningless, it fills those it touches with divine power.
When mundane, lowly activities are at stake, too much insight is detrimental – far-sightedness errs in immediate concerns.
Mozart starved, but you allow Thalberg and Liszt make tons of gold: Of course, you may think that someone immortal cannot die of hunger.
No spoon has yet destroyed a mouth, but the knife of war cuts portions that are hard to swallow. Perhaps the big mouths of the privileged are able to cope with them, but they dull the teeth of the little people and ruin their stomachs.
Do hurry and proclaim the concordat. Then castrate yourselves to keep from sinning.
Do old people always live in the past? What yesterday was firm and true, may not be so today.
Historical! Must it be historical to catch your attention? Even though historicity, like notoriety, denotes nothing more than thatsomething has occurred.
History is the zoology of the human race.
Why I love the ancients so much? Aside from everything else, when I read them, the entire past between them and me unfolds at thesame time. The hearts of how many heroes and poets may have been set on fire by Plutarch’s biographies which now inspire me with their own and with borrowed flames!
Gold is the gift of vanity and common pride, but flowers are the gift of love and friendship.
Love! Hate! Is there no third?
Someone who is reluctant to say what he needs to say, often ends up doing so with an insolence whose crassness is proportionate tohis fear, once he gathers the necessary courage.
Much as I honor the wisdom of the princess – there is something more dashing about a man.
People of talent resemble a musical instrument more closely than they do a musician. Without outside help, they produce not a single sound, but given even the slightest touch, and a magnificent tune emanates from them.
A flutist who is moved to tears by his own performance will soon make the listeners laugh because of the sounds that he produces.
Beauty satisfies the senses completely and at the same time uplifts the soul. That which gratifies the senses is pleasant, and that which uplifts the soul without being sensual in the least is good, true, right, anything you like, but not beautiful.
Women, children, Tyroleans and preachers want to create a new kingdom of God, but the God of their kingdom looks like women, children, preachers, and Tyrolians.