I change too quickly: my today refutes my yesterday. When I ascend I often jump over steps, and no step forgives me that.

The aphorism, the apothegm, in which I am the first among the Germans to be a master, are the forms of “eternity”; it is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book — what everyone else does not say in a book.

The craving for equality can express itself either as a desire to pull everyone down to our own level (by belittling them, excluding them, tripping them up) or as a desire to raise ourselves up along with everyone else (by acknowledging them, helping them, and rejoicing in their success).

Writers ought to be regarded as wrongdoers who deserve to be acquitted or pardoned only in the rarest cases: that would be a way to keep books from getting out of hand.

In compassionate men, severity is a virtue.

The truthful man ends up realizing that he always lies.

Emerson is a person who lives instinctively on ambrosia - and leaves everything indigestible on his plate.