Lessing says, "If we were to cut off Raphael's arms, he would still be a painter." In the same way we could say: "If we were to cut off this gentleman's head, he would still be a painter," - he would continue to paint without a head and no one would notice that he has no head at all.
Flattery is the pressing need of handsome men, whose specialty is just that: being handsome men.
Love is a toothache in the heart.
Love! The most sublime and triumphant feeling! But her triumphant power lies in her boundless gentleness, in an almost supernatural disinterestedness.
The love of freedom is the flower of prison, because only in prison do you value freedom.
People who don't stand out for anything are of course right to preach modesty. It is so easy for them to embody this virtue.
Meyerbeer is immortal, at least he will be so as long as he lives.
The mission of the Germans in Paris - to save me from homesickness.
My motto remains: art is the purpose of art, as love is the purpose of love, even as life itself is the purpose of life.
Silence is an English way of carrying on a conversation.
Monotheism is a minimum of religion. It is such a small dose that it cannot be reduced any further.
Morality is a religion that has turned into customs.
Lord Jesus Christ, do it in such a way that you will be crucified once more!
Lord Columbus, open another New World for us!
Wise people invent new ideas and fools spread them.
The music of the wedding march always reminds me of a march before battle.
We are not fighting for the civil rights of the people, but for the divine rights of man.
We are not kings, but slaves of the word.
We do not understand ruins until we ourselves become ruins.
We Germans worship only the unmarried maiden, and only her do our poets sing; with the French it's the other way around, only the married woman is the object of love, both in life and in art.
He was most able to progress in ignorance.
Patriotism has been prescribed to us and we have become patriots because we do whatever our elders tell us to do.
Our summer is just a green colored winter.
Not being allowed other trades, the Jews became, without their will, the wealthiest merchants and bankers. They were forced to become rich, and then they were hated because of their wealth.
If I didn't have a wife and a parrot, I would have killed myself long ago.
To disobey any of the laws is to be deprived of the most saving protection, since the laws must protect us not only from others but also from ourselves.
The man without any occupation can never be fully happy, on the face of the lazy you will always find the mark of dissatisfaction and apathy.
We do not catch the idea, but the idea catches us and leads us into the arena to fight for it, like gladiator slaves. So it is with every true tribune or apostle.
One girl decided: "He must be a very rich gentleman if he is so rude." The public thinks the same: "He must be a very learned man if he is so dull." From here comes the success of many Germans in Paris.
The German language is actually rich, but in spoken German we only use a tenth of this wealth; it turns out that we are poor in words.