One should not go into churches if one wants to breathe pure air.

Whenever the truth is uncovered, the artist will always cling with rapt gaze to what still remains covering even after such uncovering; but the theoretical man enjoys and finds satisfaction in the discarded covering and finds the highest object of his pleasure in the process of an ever happy uncovering that succeeds through his own efforts.

Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.

The various languages placed side by side show that with words it is never a question of truth, never a question of adequate expression; otherwise, there would not be so many languages. The 'thing in itself' (which is precisely what the pure truth, apart from any of its consequences, would be) is likewise something quite incomprehensible to the creator of language and something not in the least worth striving for.

In everything one thing is impossible: rationality.

Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.

When one thinks profusely and cleverly, not only his face but his body too takes on a clever appearance.