Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.
Hold your powers together for something good and let everything go that is for you without result and is not suited to you.
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
This is the true measure of love, When we believe that we alone can love, That no one could ever have loved so before us, And that no one will ever love in the same way after us.
Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart.
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
All that is transitory is but a metaphor.
He who moves not forward, goes backward.
Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.
To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from every angle. Become one with them – that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.
The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.
Night is the other half of life, and the better half.
What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive.
Doubt can only be removed by action.
Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast. – Without haste, but without rest.
God help us – for art is long, and life so short.