Куда же мы идем? Всегда домой. - Novalis

In serene souls there is no jesting. Jesting indicates a loss of equilibrium; it is both a succession of disturbances and the center's restoration. The sharpest wit has passion.
The condition of the dissolution of all proportion - despair and spiritual death - is most fearfully witty.

Goethe is an altogether practical Poet. He is in his works what the English are in their wares: highly simple, neat, convenient and durable. He has done in German Literature what Wedgwood did in English Manufacture. He has, like the English, a natural turn for Economy, and a noble Taste acquired by Understanding. Both these are very compatible, and have a near affinity in the chemical sense.

One makes a great error if one believes there are 'ancients.' Only now is antiquity starting to arise. It arises in the eyes and soul of the artist.