"The idea that unites all is the idea of beauty, taking the world in a higher, Platonic sense. I am now convinced that the highest act of reason, that in which reason contains all ideas, is an aesthetic act, and that truth and goodness are only united in beauty. Indeed, the philosopher must possess as much aesthetic power as the poet. The philosophy of spirit is [fundamentally] an aesthetic philosophy."
- "The Oldest Programme for a System of German Idealism" (1795-97)
[Authorship attributed to Schelling, Hegel, and Hoelderlin, jointly]
