Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature

The weak and misbegotten shall perish: first principle of our brotherly love. And they shall be given every assistance.

Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he puts himself on a par with a society in which it would not be polite to show one's wit.

In every form of womanly love something of motherly love also comes to light.

To those human beings who are of any concern to me, I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill treatment, indignities, profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, and the wretchedness of the vanquished.

We are so fond of being out among nature, because it has no opinions about us.

The beast in us must be[78] wheedled: ethic is necessary, that we may not be torn to pieces.