If you wish to understand a philosopher, do not ask what he says, but find out what he wants

Should not the giver be thankful that the receiver received? Is not giving a need? Is not receiving, mercy?

Completely true to nature!' - what a lie: / How could nature ever be constrained into a picture? / The smallest bit of nature is infinite! / And so he paints what he likes about it. / And what does he like? He likes what he can paint!

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.

The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.

Compulsion precedes morality, indeed morality itself is compulsion for a time, to which one submits for the avoidance of pain.

You lack the courage to be consumed in flames and to become ashes: so you will never become new, and never young again!