Many works of the ancients have become fragments. Many works of the moderns are fragments at the time of their origin.
All men are somewhat ridiculous and grotesque, just because they are men and in this respect artists might well be regarded as man multiplied by two. So it is, was, and shall be.
In the world of language, or in other words in the world of art and liberal education, religion necessarily appears as mythology or as Bible.
Nothing is more witty and grotesque than ancient mythology and Christianity; that is because they are so mystical.
A definition of poetry can only determine what poetry should be and not what poetry actually was and is; otherwise the most concise formula would be: Poetry is that which at some time and some place was thus named.
If you want to see mankind fully, look at a family. Within the family minds become organically one, and for this reason the family is total poetry.
Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. The feminine ones are not idealistic, and the idealistic not feminine.
Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.
The surest method of being incomprehensible or, moreover, to be misunderstood is to use words in their original sense; especially words from the ancient languages.
Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.
From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be.