He who not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul comes to the door and thinkshe will get into the temple by the help of art - he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted.

There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric....But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings.

Knowledge is the food of the soul.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

Atheism is a disease of the soul, before it becomes an error of the understanding