One who is always deeply involved in what he is doing is above all embarrassment.

Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153

Scholars who become politicians are usually assigned the comic role of having to be the good conscience of state policy.

Men inadvertently comport themselves with nobility when they have grown accustomed to wanting nothing from others and always giving to them.

The Refinement of Shame. People are not ashamed to think something foul, but they are ashamed when they think these foul thoughts are attributed to them.

We grow hostile to many an artist or writer, not because we finally come to see he has deceived us, but because he thought no subtler means were required to ensnare us.

Underneath the reality in which we live and have our being, another altogether different reality lies concealed.