Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it.

Duty is for Kant the One and All. Out of the duty of gratitude, he claims, one has to defend and esteem the ancients; and only out of duty has he become a great man.

Kant introduced the concept of the negative into philosophy. Would it not also be worthwhile to try to introduce the concept of the positive into philosophy?

A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory.

Eternal life and the invisible world are only to be sought in God. Only within Him do all spirits dwell. He is an abyss of individuality, the only infinite plenitude.

How many authors are there among writers? Author means originator.

As the ancient commander addressed his soldiers before battle, so should the moralist speak to men in the struggle of the era.

Many a witty inspiration is like the surprising reunion of befriended thoughts after a long separation.

The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion.

It is as deadly for a mind to have a system as to have none. Therefore it will have to decide to combine both.

Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.

What men are among the other formations of the earth, artists are among men.

Think of something finite molded into the infinite, and you think of man.

Mysteries are feminine; they like to veil themselves but still want to be seen and divined.

From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be.

What is lost in the good or excellent translation is precisely the best.

Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion.

One can only become a philosopher, but not be one. As one believes he is a philosopher, he stops being one.

Nothing is more witty and grotesque than ancient mythology and Christianity; that is because they are so mystical.

Art and works of art do not make an artist; sense and enthusiasm and instinct do.