Ernst ist das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst - Friedrich Schiller

We are citizens of an age, as well as of a State; and if it is held to be unseemly, or even inadmissable, for a man to cut himself off from the customs and manners of the circle in which he lives, why should it be less of a duty, in the choice of his activity, to submit his decision to the needs and the taste of his century?

Lebe mit deinem Jahrhundert, aber sei nicht sein Geschöpf; leiste deinen Zeitgenossen, aber was sie bedürfen, nicht was sie loben.

Glaube mir, man kann das für Stärke des Geistes halten, was doch am Ende Verzweiflung ist [...].