Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

"God", "the immortality of the soul", "salvation", "the beyond"-even as a child I had no time for such notions, I do not waste any time upon them-maybe I was never childish enough for that?

Christianity is Platonism for the people.

whatever is profound loves masks; what is most profound even hates image and parable.

When you stare into an abyss for a long time, the abyss also stares into you.

The Hour-Hand of Life --- Life consists of rare, isolated moments of the greatest significance, and of innumerably many intervals, during which at best the silhouettes of those moments hover about us. Love, springtime, every beautiful melody, mountains, the moon, the sea - all these speak completely to the heart but once, if in fact they ever do get a chance to speak completely. For many men do not have those moments at all, and are themselves intervals and intermissions in the symphony of real life.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.