How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.

Some people appear to be more meager in talent than they are, just because the tasks they set themselves are always too great.

I love him whose soul is so overfull that he forgetteth himself, and all things are in him: thus all things become his down-going.

A person unlearns arrogance when he knows he is always among worthy human beings; being alone fosters presumption. Young people are arrogant because they always associate with their own peers, those who are all really nothing but who would like to be very important.

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.

Youth is an unpleasant period; for then it is not possible or not prudent to be productive in any sense whatsoever.

Denn was ist Freiheit? Dasz man den Willen zur Selbstverantwortlichkeit hat.