The comic poet sighed deeply and began to eat.
"But why Rheinthaler ?" asked Paul.
"I at first wanted the book to appear anonymously; but the public is accustomed now to see a proper name on the title page.

If it does not find one, its curiosity is excited, and what I particularly wished to avoid comes to pass, namely, the diversion of attention from the essential to the unessential." "That does not explain why you have not put your own name to it," said Paul.
"My own name?
What for?
What is a name?
What is an individuality, which a name symbolizes?
The thoughts which I have put down in this book are not from me, the transient accident called Dorfling, but from the absolute everlasting thing which thinks in my brain.

I am merely the carrier of the truth, appointed by it.

What would you say if a postman put his name on all the letters he delivers ?" "I should not be capable of such self-effacement," said Paul.

"If I had devoted the best years of my life to any work I should be unable to renounce the recognition I had earned." "Recognition, Herr Haber.