Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain.

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try. The circler circles in these circ…

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

It is nearly always the most improbable things that really come to pass.

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

Let me ask you outright, gentle reader, if there have not been hours, indeed whole days and weeks of your life, during which all your usual activitie…

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, …

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction.

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help you.

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sk…

- E. T. A. Hoffmann

I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such mag…

- E. T. A. Hoffmann