That the world is not the embodiment of an eternal rationality can be conclusively proved by the fact that the piece of the worldthat we know--I mean our human reason--is not so very rational. And if it is not eternally and completely wise and rational, then the rest of the world will not be either; here the conclusion a minori ad majus, a parte ad totum applies, and does so with decisive force.

It is the evening that questions thus from within me.

It was Christianity, with its heartfelt resentment against life, that first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the essential fact of our life.

One who is publicly honest about himself ends up by priding himself somewhat on this honesty: for he knows only too well why he is honest-for the same reasons another person prefers illusion and dissimulation.

A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

But this word will I say to my enemies: What is all manslaughter in comparison with what you have done to me!