Nothing is more witty and grotesque than ancient mythology and Christianity; that is because they are so mystical.
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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.
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In the world of language, or in other words in the world of art and liberal education, religion necessarily appears as mythology or as Bible.
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Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.
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Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem.
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Wit as an instrument of revenge is as infamous as art is as a means of sensual titillation.
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Man is a creative retrospection of nature upon itself.
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Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.
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Mathematics is, as it were, a sensuous logic, and relates to philosophy as do the arts, music, and plastic art to poetry.
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In true prose everything must be underlined.
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Reason is mechanical, wit chemical, and genius organic spirit.
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An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.
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Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism.
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A critic is a reader who ruminates. Thus, he should have more than one stomach.
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What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.
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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.
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The historian is a prophet looking backward.
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The genuine priest always feels something higher than compassion.
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Wit is an explosion of the compound spirit.
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Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.
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Religion must completely encircle the spirit of ethical man like his element, and this luminous chaos of divine thoughts and feelings is called enthusiasm.
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It is as deadly for a mind to have a system as to have none. Therefore it will have to decide to combine both.
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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.
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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.
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Morality without a sense of paradox is mean.
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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.
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When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics.
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Many a witty inspiration is like the surprising reunion of befriended thoughts after a long separation.
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Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.
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Art and works of art do not make an artist; sense and enthusiasm and instinct do.
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