While the gods remained more human, the men were more divine.

Wage Du zu irren und zu träumen!

It seems a bad thing and detrimental to the creative work of the mind if Reason makes to close an examination of the ideas as they come pouring in -at the very gateway, as it were. Looked at in isolation, a thought may seem very trivial or very fantastic; but it may be made important by another thought that comes after it, and in conjunction with other thoughts that may seem equally absurd, it may serve to form a most effective link. Reason cannot form any opinion on all this unless it retains the thought long enough to look at it in connection with the others. On the other hand, where there is a creative mind, Reason -so it seems to me- relaxes its watch upon the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then does it look them through and examine them in a mass.

The Greeks put us to shame not only by their simplicity, which is foreign to our age; they are at the same time our rivals, nay, frequently our models, in those very points of superiority from which we seek comfort when regretting the unnatural character of our manners. We see that remarkable people uniting at once fullness of form and fullness of substance, both philosophising and creating, both tender and energetic, uniting a youthful fancy to the virility of reason in a glorious humanity.

¡Quita! Abajo con este débil siglo de castrati que no sirve más que para rumiar las hazañas del pasado y para desollar a los héroes de la Antigüedad con ediciones comentadas y echarlos a perder con tragedias. La fuerza de su simiente se ha secado y ahora hay que ayudar a los hombres a multiplicarse con levadura de cerveza.

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Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Así, pues, la ilustración del entendimiento no merece respeto, si no en cuanto que se refleja en el carácter. Pero esto no basta; en cierto modo, la ilustración ha de proceder también del carácter, porque el camino que conduce al intelecto ha de abrirlo el corazón. Educar la facultad sensible es, por tanto, la más urgente necesidad de nuestro tiempo, no sólo porque es un medio de hacer eficaces en la vida los progresos del saber, sino porque contribuye a la mejora del conocimiento mismo.