Friedrich Schlegel
Friedrich Schlegel
witty inspiration long
Many a witty inspiration is like the surprising reunion of befriended thoughts after a long separation.
wedding song happy-marriage
A so-called happy marriage corresponds to love as a correct poem to an improvised song.
philosophy epic epic-poems
Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.
drama good-drama drastic
Good drama must be drastic.
love art discipline
Genius is, to be sure, not a matter of arbitrariness, but rather of freedom, just as wit, love, and faith, which once shall become arts and disciplines. We should demand genius from everybody, without, however, expecting it.
air numbers boredom
Both in their origins and effects, boredom and stuffy air resemble each other. They are usually generated whenever a large number of people gather together in a closed room.
spiritual blow imagination
Imagination must first be filled to the point of saturation with life of every kind before the moment arrives when the friction of free sociability electrifies it to such an extent that the most gentle stimulus of friendly or hostile contact elicits from it lightning sparks, luminous flashes, or shattering blows.
society mosaics caricatures
What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.
character criticism experts
The German national character is a favorite subject of character experts, probably because the less mature a nation, the more she is an object of criticism and not of history.
lying differences religion
The difference between religion and morality lies simply in the classical division of things into the divine and the human, if one only interprets this correctly.
skills literature vigor
Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.
literature definitions would-be
A definition of poetry can only determine what poetry should be and not what poetry actually was and is; otherwise the most concise formula would be: Poetry is that which at some time and some place was thus named.
birthday men self
There is no self-knowledge but an historical one. No one knows what he himself is who does not know his fellow men, especially the most prominent one of the community, the master's master, the genius of the age.
misunderstood use literature
The surest method of being incomprehensible or, moreover, to be misunderstood is to use words in their original sense; especially words from the ancient languages.