The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

Against war one might say that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished malicious. In its favor, that in producing these two effects it barbarizes, and so makes the combatants more natural. For culture it is a sleep or a wintertime, and man emerges from it stronger for good and for evil.

If you look long enough into the void, the void begins to look back through you.

As an artist one has no home in Europe except in Paris.

Ah, there are so many things betwixt heaven and earth of which only the poets have dreamed!

Doing ill to those on whom we have to make our power felt; for pain is a far more sensitive means for that purpose than pleasure: pain always asks concerning the cause, while pleasure is inclined to keep within itself and not look backward.

To call a thing good not a day longer than it appears to us good, and above all not a day earlier - that is the only way to keep joy pure.