A character is a completely fashioned will. (vollkommen gebildeter Wille). - Novalis

The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!

Man has his being in truth — if he sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself. Whoever betrays truth betrays himself. It is not a question of lying — but of acting against one's conviction.

Sacrifice of the self is the source of all humiliation, as also on the contrary is the foundation of all true exaltation. The first step will be an inward gaze — an isolating contemplation of ourselves. Whoever stops here has come only halfway. The second step must be an active outward gaze — autonomous, constant observation of the external world.

No one will ever achieve excellence as an artist who cannot depict anything other than his own experiences, his favorite objects, who cannot bring himself to study assiduously even a quite strange object, which does not interest him at all, and to depict it at leisure. An artist must be able and willing to depict everything. This is how a great artistic style is created, which rightly is so much admired in Goethe.