It is a peculiar trait of humanity that it must exalt itself above humanity.
Plato's philosophy is a worthy preface to the religion of the future.
Man is free when he brings forth God or makes Him visible; and thereby he becomes immortal.
The morality of a book lies not in its theme or in the relation of the writer to his public, but in the spirit of the treatment. If this breathes the full abundance of humanity, it is moral. If it is merely the work of an isolated power and art, it is not moral.
He is an artist who has his centre within himself. He who lacks this must choose a definite leader and mediator outside himself—naturally, not forever, but only at the first. For without a living centre man cannot exist, and if he does not yet have it within himself he can seek it only in a human being, and only a human being and his centre can arouse and awaken the artist's own.
NOVALIS (FRIEDRICH VON HARDENBERG)
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THE STORY OF HYACINTH AND ROSEBLOSSOM
From The Novices at Saïs (1798)