A reproach can only hurt if it hits the mark. Whoever knows that he does not deserve a reproach can treat it with contempt.

A man of genius can hardly be sociable, for what dialogues could indeed be so intelligent and entertaining as his own monologues?

Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.

Pride works from within; it is the direct appreciation of oneself.

[T]he moralists of Europe [have] pretended that beasts have no rights... a doctrine revolting/gross/barbarous... on which a native of the Asiatic uplands could not look without righteous horror.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

Consciousness makes the individual careful to maintain his own existence; and if this were not so, there would be no surety for the preservation of the species. From all this it is clear that individuality is not a form of perfection, but rather a limitation; and so to be freed from it is not loss but gain.