Hyperion

What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven.

I call on Fate to give me back my soul.

Now we were standing close to the summit's rim, gazing out into the endless East.

Before either of us knew it, we belonged to each other.

It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven.

A thousand times have I said it to her and to myself: the most beautiful is also the most sacred. And such was everything in her. Like her singing, even so was her life.

What is all that men have done and thought over thousands of years, compared with one moment of love. But in all Nature, too, it is what is nearest to perfection, what is most divinely beautiful! There all stairs lead from the threshold of life. From there we come, to there we go.

What is the wisdom of a book compared with the wisdom of an angel?