| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 48510 |
| QUOTATION: | A witty inspiration is a dissolution of spiritual substances which consequently, before the sudden separation, must have been most intimately intermingled. Imagination must first be filled to the point of saturation with life of every kind before the moment arrives when the friction of free sociability electrifies it to such an extent that the most gentle stimulus of friendly or hostile contact elicits from it lightning sparks, luminous flashes, or shattering blows. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772–1829), German philosopher. Aphorism 34 in Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797), translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Pennsylvania University Press (1968). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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