“It is strange that the imagination is the most productive when it finds no outer objects: then it creates objects itself and forms them all the more carefully, because there is no foreign material, but only its own children. There is no poetry in enjoyment (reality kills the dream), only in longing[.]” PhilosophyImaginationCreativityRomanticismGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“[E]ach individual is holy, it is God’s work, it is its own purpose. If it becomes what it can become according to its nature, then it has done enough, and what it profits others is a side issue.” PhilosophyVirtueIndividualityRomanticismGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“A little while ago I was able to wander in a beautiful sublime fantasy world, in Ossian’s half-dark magical world. But the blessed dreams dissolve; they seem like love potions - they intoxicate, exalt and then disappear, that is the misery and wretchedness of all our feelings. With thoughts it is no better: one easily overthinks things to the point of staleness.” PhilosophyReadingDreamsRomanticismOverthinkingGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“Everything that was created is good, says the holy writing; why not human beings only? Why should they be otherwise than they are? Strange! - This fills me with sorrow. To slaughter one's sensations and wishes on the altars of necessity or morality, one calls that virtue.” PhilosophyVirtueMoralityGoodnessRomanticismGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“Even the truest letters are, in my opinion, only corpses: they describe a life that inhabited them, and whether or not they look like the living, the moment of their life is already past. But for that reason, it seems to me (when I read what I wrote a while ago) as if I saw myself lying in my coffin and my two Is stared at each other in amazement.” SelfPhilosophyLettersRomanticismSelf ImageGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“I usually carry around a quiet little chamber in my mind in this life; in it I live an isolated, separated, happy life interested in and loving some person, an idea, a science, or an art. Because I linger much too much in this cosy little corner, I am stupid and strange with the world and people, and am always too clumsy to treat them as one should.” PhilosophyFriendshipLonelinessRomanticismGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode
“Why, then, is everything on earth good except human beings? Why should they alone become different than they are?” PhilosophyHuman BeingsSinVirtueRomanticismGerman Literature Author:Karoline von Günderrode