“I know I can trust in my heart…that she…dare I, can I express heaven in a few words? That she loves me.”

“I am proud of my heart alone, it is the sole source of everything, all our strength, happiness and misery. All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own”

“I mean now to try and see her as soon as I can: or perhaps, on second thoughts, I had better not; it is better I should behold her through the eyes of her lover. To my sight, perhaps, she would not appear as she now stands before me; and why should I destroy so sweet a picture?”

“Wild dreams torment me as I lie. And though a god lives in my heart, though all my power waken at his word, though he can move my every inmost part - yet nothing in the outer world is stirred. thus by existence tortured and oppressed I crave for death, I long for rest.”

“Now I find my good menAre gathered in the nightTo wait in silence, not to sleepAnd the glorious word of libertyThey whisper and murmurTill in unaccustomed strangenessOn the steps of our temperOnce again in delight they cryFreedom! Freedom!”

“How clearly I have seen my condition, yet how childishly I have acted. How clearly I still see it, and yet show no sign of improvement.”

“What I have lately said of painting is equally true with respect to poetry. It is only necessary for us to know what is really excellent, and venture to give it expression; and that is saying much in few words. To-day I have had a scene, which, if literally related, would, make the most beautiful idyl in the world. But why should I talk of poetry and scenes and idyls? Can we never take pleasure in nature without having recourse to art?”