“Poetry without this absolutely critical sincerity and truth may be beautiful, but its beauty is to me not charming but offensive.”

Rejecting poetic beauty when it is detached from sincerity and truth · Autobiographical Notes, Vol. II, Chapter IX

• Beauty
• Poetry
• Truth

“I have thought to understand myself better by their means. But it has not been so; the difficulty of looking upon oneself from an outer standpoint is too great.”

Acknowledging the limits of self-knowledge even through autobiography · Autobiographical Notes, Vol. I, Prologue

• Solitude
• Truth

“For myself, one absorbing and all-sacrificing passion of friendship has followed another through my life.”

Describing friendship as one of the strongest recurring passions of his life · Autobiographical Notes, Vol. I, Chapter VIII

• Friendship
• Time