Christoph Martin Wieland

"Nichts halb zu thun ist edler Geister Art."

"I said Philosophy might the rather maintain its place, as healing art for the soul, because then, the well would know that they had nothing to do with it. But as all arts love to make themselves more important than they are, so this art too has found means to impose itself upon all the world as indispensable. Like its sister art, which ministers to the body, it will not allow any one to be entirely well."

"The wise Theophrastus lived ninety years, and when he came to die, he complained against Nature because "she has given man so little time to live, and because an honest fellow must die at the very moment when he has begun to comprehend a little the art of life." But — let me remark in passing — I am very far from believing that Theophrastus made the foolish speech which is imputed to him. The people around his bed did not exactly understand what he said, and then some schoolmaster came along, a good while after, and tried to make sense of it, and made nonsense. I would bet that Theophrastus meant neither more nor less than this; that he regretted he had not been wise enough, sixty or seventy years before, to see that he might have saved himself the trouble of studying, as art and science, what Nature would have taught him far better and more surely, without study, if he had had the simplicity of mind to heed her instruction. It was not innocent Nature but his own folly that he blamed, as most men are wont to do in his case; although they might as well let it alone; for what is the use of repentance when one has time left for amendment?"

"Noch einmahl sattelt mir den Hippogryfen, ihr Musen, Zum Ritt ins alte romantische Land!"

"Ein Wahn, der mich beglückt, Ist eine Wahrheit werth, die mich zu Boden drückt."

"wir lernen durch Irren und Fehlen, und werden Meister durch Übung, ohne zu merken wie es zugegangen ist."

"Und minder ist oft mehr, wie Lessings Prinz uns lehrt."

"Sorgt immer für den Augenblick, // Und Gott laßt für die Zukunft sorgen."

"Sie sehn den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht."

"[...] schwatzt noch so hoch gelehrt, // Man weiß doch nichts als was man selbst erfährt!"

"Nichts halb zu tun ist edler Geister Art."

"Jede höhere Stufe, welche der Mensch betritt, erfordert eine andere Lebensordnung."

"Ein Wahn, der mich beglückt, ist eine Wahrheit wert, die mich zu Boden drückt."

"Ein einz'ger augenblik kann alles umgestalten!"

"Die Stimme der Natur läßt sich nicht überschreien."

"Der Wein gibt Witz und stärkt den Magen."

"Denn Schwärmerey steckt wie der Schnuppen an. // Man fühlt, ich weis nicht was, und eh man wehren kann, // Ist unser Kopf des Herzens nicht mehr mächtig."

"Denn für den Unwissenden ist alles möglich."

"Bei leerem Magen // Sind alle Uebel doppelt schwer."