Our shortcomings are the eyes with which we see the ideal.

He who lives as children live - who does not struggle for his bread and does not believe that his actions possess any ultimate significance - remains childlike.

We can speak very much to the purpose and yet in such a way that the whole world cries out in contradiction: namely, when we are not speaking to the whole world.

That which does not destroy, strengthens.

Once and for all, there are many things I choose not to know.--Wisdom sets limits even to knowledge.

What is it that you love in others?--My hopes.

To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.