You believe I run after the strange because I do not know the beautiful; no, it is because you do not know the beautiful that I seek the strange. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The most brightly colored birds sing the worst; the same goes for people.

In his Comedy, Dante Alighieri names Virgil, with many tokens of respect, as his teacher, and yet as Herr Meinhard remarks, makes such ill use of him: clear proof that even in the days of Dante one praised the ancients without knowing why. This respect for poets one does not understand and yet wishes to equal is the source of the bad writing in our literature.

Die Metapher ist weit klüger als ihr Verfasser, und so sind es viele Dinge. Alles hat seine Tiefen. Wer Augen hat, der sieht alles in allem