Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.
The uneducated person perceives only the individual phenomenon, the partly educated person the rule, and the educated person the exception.
Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun.
Without a notion of the transcendental, human beings would, indeed, be animals; however, only fools can be convinced of it, and only degenerates need such a conviction.
If we notice a few errors in the work of a proven master, we may and even will often be correct; if we believe, however, that he is completely and utterly mistaken, we are in danger of missing his entire concept.
No shortcomings of other people cause us to be more intolerant than those which are caricatures of our own.
Science and art, or by the same token, poetry and prose differ from one another like a journey and an excursion. The purpose of the journey is its goal, the purpose of an excursion is the process.
It's the misfortune of German authors that not a single one of them dares to expose his true character. Everyone thinks that he has to be better than he is.
Mankind is getting smarter every day. Actually, it only seems so. At least we are making progress. We're progressing, to be sure, ever more deeply into the forest.