To have to fight the instincts - that is the definition of decadence: as long as life is ascending, happiness equals instinct.

I see many soldiers; could I but see many warriors! "Uniform" one calleth what they wear; may it not be uniform what they therewith hide!

Well-meaning, helpful, good-natured attitudes of mind have not come to be honored on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life.

If a man have a strong faith he can indulge in the luxury of skepticism.

On the heights it is warmer than people in the valley suppose, especially in winter. The thinker recognizes the full import of this simile.

All religions bear traces of the fact that they arose during the intellectual immaturity of the human race - before it had learned the obligations to speak the truth. Not one of them makes it the duty of its god to be truthful and understandable in his communications.

O my brothers, am I then cruel? But I say: that which is falling should also be pushed!