E. T. A. Hoffmann

There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Human beings ought not to draw in their antennae at every ungentle touch, like supersensitive insects.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Boys should not play with weapons more dangerous than they understand.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

It is nearly always the most improbable things that really come to pass.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction.

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

As the priest is characterized by his cassock, so the smoker by his pipe. The way in which he holds it, raises…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Mozart's music is the mysterious language of a distant spiritual kingdom, whose marvelous accents echo in our inner being and arouse a…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

It is true that writers often owe their most inspired thoughts, their most extraordinary phrases, to their generous typesetters, who assist their…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try.…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

There are men from whom nature or some peculiar destiny has removed the cover beneath which we hide our own madness. They…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

The foot of the heavenly ladder, which we have got to mount in order to reach the higher regions, has to be…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

The human spirit is itself the most wonderful fairy tale that can possibly be. What a magnificent world lies enclosed within our…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann

“If there is a dark and hostile power which traitorously fixes a thread in our hearts in order that, laying hold of…

— E. T. A. Hoffmann