There have been many movements in the world—some of them recorded in history as portentous events, others forgotten within a few years of their occurrence—which may each be compared to a wave on the surface of the Mediterranean. From the insignificant ripple to the wavehigh billow flecked with foam and breaking in cataracts, they have arisen only to subside to their original level, leaving the boundaries of land and sea where they have stood for a thousand years. There are other movements, on the contrary, which resemble the tides of the Ocean, wherein each wave obeys one uniform impetus, and carries the waters onward and upward along the shore. [...]

Viel wichtiger sind für unsere Betrachtungen diejenigen Vorgänge universaler Beziehungen, in denen es gelingt, tatsächliche starke Einflüsse einer bestimmten menschlichen Gemeinschaft einer anderen innerhalb ihres menschlich verlaufenden Entwicklungsprozesses als in ständiger Entwicklung fortdauernd einzuimpfen.[...]

In unseren Zeiten begnügt man sich nicht mehr mit den literarischen und künstlerischen Werken, die im eigenen Lande produziert werden. Der Horizont hat sich ausgedehnt: der Mensch will, was unter anderem Himmel, durch andere Völker entsteht, kennen und verstehen und seinen geistigen Besitz durch das Beste, was die Menschheit in dieser Beziehung hervorbringt, bereichern.[...]

It would be impossible for me either to appear at or write to your Convention in the aim of furnishing a contribution to your deliberations, except in connection with my own life-work, and the deep convictions which instigated that life-work, and which have become even more and more profound as I continued in it.[...]