In order to be able to write ...

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.
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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

Quotes from the same author

One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry.
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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Since poetry is infinitely valuable, I do not understand why it should be more valuable than this or that which is also infinitelyvaluable. There are artists who perhaps do not think art to be too great, for this is impossible, and yet they are not free enough to be able to rise above their own best accomplishments.
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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
When the author has no idea of what to reply to a critic, he then likes to say: you could not do it better anyway. This is the same as if a dogmatic philosopher reproached a skeptic for not being able to devise a system.
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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
A genuinely free and educated man should be able to tune himself, as one tunes a musical instrument, absolutely arbitrarily, at his convenience at any time and to any degree, philosophically or philologically, critically or poetically, historically or rhetorically, in ancient or modern form.
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 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel