The Great Man... is colder, harder, less hesitating, and without fear of 'opinion'; he lacks the virtues that accompany respect and 'respectability,' and altogether everything that is the 'virtue of the herd.' If he cannot lead, he goes alone... He knows he is incommunicable: he finds it tasteless to be familiar... When not speaking to himself, he wears a mask. There is a solitude within him that is inaccessible to praise or blame.

Women are quite able to make friends with a man; but to preserve such a friendship - that no doubt requires the assistance of a slight physical antipathy

one does not only wish to be understood when one writes; one wishes just as surely not to be understood.

Pardon me, my friends, I have ventured to paint my happiness on the wall.

The Germans are like women, you can scarcely ever fathom their depths - they haven't any.

I hate you most because you attract, but are not strong enough to pull me to you.

you must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?