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In order to be able to write well upon a subject, one must have ceased to be interested in it the thought which is to be soberlyexpressed must already be entirely past and no longer be one's actual concern.

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

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Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Age: 57 †
Born: 1772
Born: January 1
Died: 1829
Died: January 11
Art Theorist
Editor
Historian
Literary Critic
Literary Theorist
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Hanover
Germany
Karl Friedrich von Schlegel
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Friedrich von Schlegel
Friedrich Karl Wilhelm von Schlegel
Able
Interested
Wells
Longer
Well
Already
Ceased
Must
Upon
Actual
Writing
Write
Entirely
Order
Subject
Past
Concern
Thought
Subjects

More quotes by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

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Whoever could properly characterize Goethe's Meister would have actually expressed what is the timely trend in literature. He would be able, as far as literary criticism is concerned, to rest.
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What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.
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The naive is what is or appears to be natural, individual, or classical to the point of irony or to the point of continuous alternation of self-creation and self-destruction. If it is only instinct, then it is childlike, childish, or silly if it is only intention, it becomes affectation.
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One can only become a philosopher, but not be one. As one believes he is a philosopher, he stops being one.
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Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion.
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Man is a creative retrospection of nature upon itself.
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It is as deadly for a mind to have a system as to have none. Therefore it will have to decide to combine both.
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It is individuality which is the original and eternal within man personality doesn't matter so much. To pursue the education and development of this individuality as one's highest vocation would be a divine egoism.
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One should have wit, but not wish to have it otherwise there will be witticism, the Alexandrian style of wit.
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The subject of history is the gradual realization of all that is practically necessary.
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The following are the universally fundamental laws of literary communication: 1. one must have something to communicate 2. one must have someone to whom to communicate it 3. one must really communicate it, not merely express it for oneself alone. Otherwise it would be more to the point to remain silent.
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In the ancients, one sees the accomplished letter of entire poetry: in the moderns, one has the presentiment of the spirit in becoming.
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The highest good and solely useful is liberal education.
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Religion is absolutely unfathomable. Always and everywhere one can dig more deeply into infinities.
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The few existing writings against Kantian philosophy are the most important documents in the case history of sound common sense.
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In true prose everything must be underlined.
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There is so much poetry, and yet nothing is more rare than a poetic work. This is what the masses make out of poetical sketches, studies, aphorisms, trends, ruins, and raw material.
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Every form of life is in its origin not natural, but divine and human for it must spring from love, just as there can be no reason without spirit.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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Those works whose ideal has not as much living reality and, as it were, personality as the beloved one or a friend had better remain unwritten. They would at least never become works of art.
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Only through religion can logic develop into philosophy, only from this source stems that which makes philosophy more than science. And without religion we will have only novels, or the triviality today called belles lettres instead of an eternally rich and infinite poetry.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel