He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.

Man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art.

For some natures, changing their opinions is just as much a requirement of cleanliness as changing their clothes: for others, however, it is merely a requirement of vanity.

It is, indeed, a fact that, in the midst of society and sociability every evil inclination has to place itself under such great restraint, don so many masks, lay itself so often on the procrustean bed of virtue, that one could well speak of a martyrdom of the evil man. In solitude all this falls away. He who is evil is at his most evil in solitude: which is where he is at his best - and thus to the eye of him who sees everywhere only a spectacle also at his most beautiful.

The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.

When gods die, they always die many sorts of death.

In a certain state it is indecent to live longer.