Only strong personalities can endure history, the weak are extinguished by it.

Call me whatever you like; I am who I must be.

Our shortcomings are the eyes with which we see the ideal.

In solitude the lonely man is eaten up by himself, among crowds by the many.

Sometimes all you need to do to win clever people over to a principle is to present it in the form of a shocking paradox.

And if a friend does you wrong, then say: "I forgive you what you have done to me; that you have done it to YOURSELF, however--how could I forgive that!

So long as the spectator has to figure out the meaning of this or that person, or the presuppositions of this or that conflict of inclinations and purposes, he cannot become completely absorbed in the activities and sufferings of the chief characters or feel breathless pity and fear.