Whenever the strength of a belief strongly steps into the foreground, we must infer a certain weakness of demonstrability and the improbability of that belief.

One must never have spared oneself, one must have acquired hardness as a habit to be cheerful and in good spirits in the midst of nothing but hard truths.

If there were gods, how could I endure not to be a god? Therefore there are no gods.

Man alone resists the direction of gravitation: he constantly wants to fall--upwards.

Out of love, women become entirely what it is that they are in the imaginations of the men who love them.

There are two types of genius; one which above all begets and wants to beget, and another which prefers being fertilized and giving birth.

Towards gnats and fleas we should show no pity. We would do right to hang petty thieves, petty calumniators, and slanderers.