Man demands truth and fulfills this demand in moral intercourse with other men; this is the basis of all social life. One anticipates the unpleasant consequences of reciprocal lying. From this there arises the duty of truth. We permit epic poets to lie because we expect no detrimental consequences in this case. Thus the lie is permitted where it is considered something pleasant. Assuming that it does no harm, the lie is beautiful and charming.

Remorse.-- Never yield to remorse, but at once tell yourself: remorse would simply mean adding to the first act of stupidity a second.

Men submit from habit to everything that seeks power.

A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.

Beware in the presence of cats: they never give, they do not even retaliate--they only reply, and purr in doing so.

The way to transmute your iron duty into gold in everyone's eyes is this: always deliver more than you promise.

Against war one might say that it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished malicious. In its favor, that in producing these two effects it barbarizes, and so makes the combatants more natural. For culture it is a sleep or a wintertime, and man emerges from it stronger for good and for evil.