“A cock should always know his limits and never have his eyes on the big heights like an eagle!”

“Anyway, two men hugging each other is against nature. A ram should not hug another ram, and a he-goat should not hug another he-goat! Let a he-dog embrace a she-dog, and let a female cattle hug a bull, but a stallion should not embrace another stallion, and a cock should not reach for another cock!”

“If you are a sparrow, don’t attack the eagle; be wise! If you are an eagle, don’t attack the sparrow; be just!”

“Mystery keeps man alive; it opens his ears, his eyes, and his mind! Find a mystery and try to solve it!”

“We should extinguish not candles, but torches, my good neighbour; we should fell not shrubs but trees: we should kill one giant instead of ten dwarfs!.. When there is an ostentatious cock crowing all over the place, what is the use of killing one insignificant chick? In a war you have to kill the king first; thus you can put an end to the battle more quickly!”

“A bird without wings and a man without art are both condemned to wander in low places; they can never soar up to those unrivalled heights.”

“The writer is a kind of hawk; he goes round in the skies, constantly looking with his sharp eyes for the character that he can pick up with his claws. Sometimes he goes round hungry for a week, he cannot catch any characters; and sometimes characters rain on him like heavy rain.”