I see grey, grey, and white, white, and have accustomed myself in my yearning after knowledge, not to attribute the smallest part to my own idiosyncrasy, if such indeed there be existing in my empty breast.

You look straight onwards as I do, but in you each idea is transfigured, for in your soul invisible shaping powers are at work, which set the crooked straight, clothe the commonplace with charm, the repulsive with beauty.

You are a poet, an artist; I only seek for truth." "Only ?" said Pentaur, "it is just on account of that effort that I esteem you so highly, and, as you already know, I also desire nothing but the truth." "I know, I know," said the physician nodding, "but our ways run side by side without ever touching, and our final goal is the reading of a riddle, of which there are many solutions.

You believe yourself to have found the right one, and perhaps none exists." "Then let us content ourselves with the nearest and the most beautiful," said Pentaur.
"The most beautiful ?" cried Nebsecht indignantly.

"Is that monster, whom you call God, beautiful--the giant who for ever regenerates himself that he may devour himself again?
God is the All, you say, who suffices to himself.