Against great advantages in another, there are no means of defending ourselves except love.

The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty,
Even though this world is forever altering its values.

Colour itself is a degree of darkness.

CHORUS
Gird thee for the high endeavor;
Shun the crowd's ignoble ease!
Fails the spirit never,
Wise to think, and prompt to seize.
Goethe, Faust, Part II, act 1, 50 -- 53.

There is no surer method of evading the world than by following Art and no surer method of linking oneself to it than by Art.

Excellence is rarely found, more rarely valued.

I prefer an injurious truth to a useful error. Truth heals any pain it may inflict on us.

A man's errors are what make him amiable.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.

Oh God, how do the world and heavens confine themselves, when our hearts tremble in their own barriers!

The society of women is the element of good manners.

True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.

Once I blazed across the sky,
Leaving trails of flame;
I fell to earth, and here I lie
Who'll help me up again?
-A Shooting Star.

One can't dull a project better than by discussing it repeatedly.

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

The coward only threatens when he is safe.

Once you have missed the first buttonhole you'll never manage to button up.